The Security Breach At Calabar Airport

The recent dramatic incident at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, in which a taxi driver breached airport security and drove his cab straight onto the tarmac and rammed into an Abuja-bound Arik Aircraft waiting to take off with 200 passengers on board is puzzling. The loose and porous security at the airport is to blame.

Luckily enough, the car turned out not to have any bomb planted in it. Had this been the case, or has there been an explosion, the story would have been different, as a major disaster would have occurred. Both the plane and the passengers could have been torn apart in the blast. How did the man manage to get into the restricted area of the airport unhindered? Where were the security personnel who were supposed to guard the two Air Force gates through which the man accessed the tarmac? Are there no security restrictions at the Calabar Airport?

The incident clearly exposed the security lapses at Nigeria's airports. Once again, it serves as a wake up call for the authorities to review and overhaul the entire security system at the nation's airports. What we are dealing with is a failure of security that could have disastrous consequences.

Happening at a time attention is on Nigeria's aviation security following the December 25, 2009 attempt by the Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a Detroit-bound plane in the United States, the incident, certainly, is a bad advertisement for Nigeria. Mr. Abdulmutallab stopped over at the Lagos Airport from Ghana en route the US through Amsterdam. But the fact that he is a Nigerian and passed through the Lagos Airport put Nigeria under focus. We expected that the ugly incident which led the US authorities to put Nigeria on the terror watch list would have spurred the Nigerian authorities to provide extra security measures at the nation's airports. But the Calabar Airport incident has proved the contrary.

Perhaps, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) should be reminded once again that the time to secure the airports is now in view of the growing threats of terrorism from within and outside the country. Nothing should be taken for granted any more. Not even the culture of giving Nigerian "big men" and their entourage unrestricted access around the airport including the tarmac. Such dangerous practices should be discouraged.

Thus, it happened that the taxicab passed through what was supposed to be two guarded Nigerian Air Force gates right onto the tarmac without any checks or hindrance. The car knocked down the gates, raced onto the tarmac and smashed unto the belly of the parked aircraft waiting to take off.

The impact of the car reportedly triggered off an alarm. Where were the security men? Apart from the Air Force personnel that were supposed to man the gates, there should have been policemen as well as FAAN security personnel on duty.

It should be clear to the authorities that airports are national frontiers linking the country to the outside world. Unfortunately, our airports are poorly maintained. The infrastructures are poor and sub-standard. That explains why the airports are not protected even with perimeter fences.

Nigeria's airports may have built at a time when there was no major security threat in the country. As a result, airport security has all along been taken for granted. In the Calabar airport case, it will in fact be surprising if there is any video recording of the entire saga as there may be no Closed Circuit Television Cameras at the airport. Such gadgets are supposed to be part of the installations to monitor security. How many airports have them in Nigeria?

Airport security has become a global issue. The Nigerian authorities owe it as a duty to protect life and property at the airports and elsewhere in the land. There is no alternative to that. In the meantime, the cab driver who claimed that he wanted to punish "unrepentant sinners" and that he would return to complete his attack should be made to face the full wrath of the law. His interrogators must try to find out if he has any hidden sponsors or persuaders.

ELECTRONIC VOTING IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Editorial
Published by Nigerian Tribune

At a recent session in the Senate, during its proceedings on the amendment of the 1999 Constitution, a total of 36 sections of the constitution were amended with two-thirds majority votes. However, in the House of Representatives, things were different because the ad-hoc committee could not present its report because, according to the Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole, preparations for electronic voting on the amendment must be concluded first.

The senators who participated in the voting were reported to have been excited by the activation of the electronic voting machine which had hitherto been moribund. It is heartening to note that the senators tasked their leadership to ensure that the use of electronic voting in the Senate becomes a permanent feature in the legislatures.

According to reports, the electronic device in the Senate had been lying idle for about 12 years before its recent activation and usage. This implies that voting had been conducted manually over the years and therefore, the record of the voting pattern of the legislators in both the upper and lower chambers of the National Assembly could not have been accurate. The derivation of useful statistics for research purposes is also not possible with the former primitive system. As a matter of fact, observers of the proceedings at the National Assembly, especially the televised proceedings, would have been aghast at what informed the decisions of both the Senate President and the Speaker as they banged the gavel and announced with some measure of confidence that ‘the ayes have it or the nays have it.’

Did they count manually or simply depend upon the decibel of the voices of the voters who could have mischievously opted to any either ‘ayes’ or ‘nay’ for the same motion? Certainly such a crude process must have been inimical to the process of strengthening democracy. This is because the voting pattern of each legislator is a crucial index to ascertain the position of each legislator and ensure that he accurately votes in a pattern consistent with the aspirations of his people.

For instance, as a sad but relevant example, the tenure elongation plot during Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency failed only because the legislators demurred when they realised that the proceedings were to be televised live. With the electronic voting device in place, it would have been easily obvious who voted for what, and each constituency would have known how much commitment their senators and representatives were showing in their voting patterns.

The activation of the electronic device at the National Assembly is therefore a welcome development vis-à-vis the strengthening of the democratic institution in Nigeria. The state Houses of Assembly should take a leaf from the National Assembly’s book and effect same at the state level to enhance transparency. With it in place, people can know who of the senators or representatives or legislators at the state level have been unduly influenced to vote in a direction contrary to the position of their constituencies.

We are aware that in more developed democracies in the world, legislators have been accurately assessed by their people through their voting pattern. The people have been empowered to assess their representatives critically so as to decide whether to return such legislators at the next poll or not. This is the kind of democracy which truly gives the people the power to be exercised on their behalf by their representatives at the legislatures. The manual system of counting voting is arbitrarily and totally unacceptable to a people who want to be truly in charge of their collective destinies.



Source: Nigeria Tribune

Togo's presidential election

Nigerian Tribune, Wednesday, March 17, 2010

FAURE Gnassingbe's margin of victory in Togo's presidential election held on March 4 was decisive, but not embarrassingly crushing. He ran as the incumbent and some incumbents, especially in Africa, claim to have won more than 80 per cent of the vote. PRESIDENT Gnassingbe appears more sensible than many politicians. In a governorship election in Nigeria, the turnout was said to be more than 90 per cent in wet conditions and the incumbent won almost every vote of the more than two million reportedly cast!

PRESIDENT Gnassingbe won 60.92 per cent of the vote, almost double that of Jean-Pierre Fabre of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) at 33.94 per cent.

MR. Fabre immediately cried fraud. He said he was the winner of the election and led his supporters to the streets to protest President Gnassingbe's victory. Many of the demonstrators dissolved into tears; their eyes were stung by a floating cloud of tear gas. A tear gas grenade landed at Mr. Fabre's feet; it was a grim greeting.

MR. Fabre said he was ready to die, but the police prevented him from leading his supporters on the second day of protest. The government had set up a special security unit before the election. The leader of the unit, Damhane Yark, did not try to hide the fact that his loyalties were to President Gnassingbe. "Some people from outside the country came to Togo to make trouble during the election. And they were paid by one of the country's opposition parties."

PRESIDENT Gnassingbe has strong military support. The army made him president after his father's sudden death in February 2005. His father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, seized power in 1967 in a military coup. He discarded his colonel's uniform and began to wear sharp suits. Mr. Eyadema was in dictatorial power for 38 years.

MR. Eyadema allowed multiparty elections in 1993 but he was never in danger of losing power. This was not because he was popular, but because state officials feared his power. The state-owned radio station praised him before beginning the broadcast of news.

HE routinely abused human rights, as an African Union - European Union panel had no hesitation in concluding after investigating allegations against him. He lauded Mr. Gilchrist Olympio whose father, the country's first president, was murdered in 1963. The younger Olympio was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.

MR. Olympio was barred from running in the 2003 presidential election. A referendum held by Mr. Eyadema in 2002 had removed presidential term limits. Mr. Eyadema would have remained in office - and he was 'only' in his 60s - if he had not died.

THE installation of Faure Gnassingbe as president by the army after his father's death greatly offended most Togolese and the international community. Mr. Gnassingbe was forced to step down, a candidate in the election to choose his father's successor.

MR. Gnassingbe runs on the ticket of the Rally of the Togolese people. More than two million votes were cast in the April 24, 2005, election and Mr. Gnassingbe was said to have won 60.15 per cent of the ballot. His closest rival was Mr. Emmanuel Bob-Akitan of the Union of Forces for Change with 38.25 per cent of the votes. The declaration of Mr. Gnassingbe as the winner of the election led to violent street protests.

IT seems Mr. Gnassingbe has become more popular, though marginally so, since the last election in 2005. He won 60.92 per cent in the March 4 election compared to the 60.15 per cent he won in 2005.

DOES this show modesty or honesty? Modesty is not honesty, though both can be false. General Sani Abacha gave the impression of honesty when he signed the decree to punish top bank executives whose robbery led to the collapse of their banks, but he salted hundreds of millions of dollars away in foreign bank accounts, money that he stole from the Nigerian people.

INTERNATIONAL observers said the election was free and fair, but one of the defeated candidates said the wool had been expertly pulled over their eyes: "The vote was so expertly stolen by the ruling party that electoral observers will never understand what really happened."

MR. Fabre claimed that many of his supporters did not go out to vote because they were intimidated. But some of the same supporters were not afraid to confront the same security forces after the results of the election were announced.

THE election was probably free, but there is a question mark over the results. The satellite system that was used to transmit results from polling station was said to have crashed.

THE reality on the ground is that Mr. Gnassingbe will remain in power for the next five years. As term limits have been removed, he may remain in office for as long as he wants. He is a young man and has firmly checked the rivalry of his half brother.

THERE are presidential dynasties in three African countries - Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Togo. Egypt may be next. This bodes ill for democracy on the continent.

Niger: The fall of Mamadou Tandja

The military takeover, February 18, of neighboring Republic of Niger at a time when coup d’états were thought to be no longer fashionable, is, indeed, West Africa’s latest democracy deficit and must be condemned in all its ramifications.

Following a trend that has become depressingly familiar in West Africa over the past 18 months, army officers seized power in the uranium ore-rich country and removed President Mamadou Tandja from office.

There is no doubt that the ugly development was enabled by the political crisis that began last year when Tandja, through a referendum, extended his tenure in office indefinitely, beyond its December 2009 limit.

In fact, many people saw the coup coming because President Tandja had done everything to subvert the will of his people. And that explains why some have said that he got exactly what he deserved as it is popularly said that whoever makes peaceful change impossible, makes violent change inevitable.

Towards the expiration of his tenure, Tandja manipulated the legislature to amend the Constitution to accommodate a third term for him. He cracked down viciously on all opposition in the country and dissolved the parliament when he was not having his way with its members.

Indeed, he was operating as a maximum ruler. All entreaties by sub-regional groups, especially the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that sent several delegations to him, fell on deaf ears, until that fateful day when soldiers, led by Maj Salou Djibo, shot into the Presidential Palace and took Tandja and members of his cabinet captive, dissolved all democratic institutions and suspended the Constitution.

Though, the newly installed junta, which calls itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, has promised to return the country to democracy, a military occupation of Niger Republic should not be the case at this point in the history of that country.

Sadly, the situation in Niger is a sobering reminder of the precarious state of democracy in a region all-too-familiar with the replacement of civilian presidents by military regimes.

For instance, the president and head of the army in Guinea-Bissau, was assassinated about a year ago, and the country is barely back on track towards civilian leadership with a transitional government comprised of both political and military figures.

Mauritania recently had a taste of this bitter pill and has struggled to regain its legitimacy after two coups in three years executed by the same military officers.

Now, if you should add the ongoing leadership crisis in Nigeria, the rising tension in Ivory Coast ahead of elections now five times postponed, and the slow and unsteady progress towards post-conflict reconciliation in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the picture is clearly that of a sub region acutely deficient in good governance and strong democratic institutions.

The Nigerien coup, the third in 18 months in West Africa alone, cannot be of any good to the people of the landlocked nation, most of who live on less than $700 a year.

Niger’s GDP growth rate is said to be just over three per cent per year with its population growth rate placed at about three and a half per cent per year.

The country remains handicapped by its landlocked position, desert terrain, poor education, poverty of its people, lack of infrastructure, poor health care, and environmental degradation.

In the 50 years since its independence, there have been three coups d’état, and the army has governed in place of elected leaders for 20 of those 50 years, with practically nothing to show to the nation of about 15 million people for their interventions.

Therefore, not many are taking seriously, the senior Nigerien officers, who, following serious condemnation of their act, protested that the army has no interest in politics.

Everything possible must, thus, be done by both the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS to make the Presidential Palace in Niamey uncomfortable for the coup plotters.

We totally condemn the takeover of power and support the immediate conduct of free and fair elections and handover to a democratically elected civilian government.

While we support all efforts being made in this direction, we must quickly note that the development in Niger should serve a note of warning to all leaders in the sub-region and, indeed, the continent, to desist from all acts of sit-tightism as they will only be creating an environment conducive for anarchy.

Military rule is unconstitutional and not fashionable anywhere in the world. And although the people of Niger may have celebrated the latest development as some of them were said to have hit the streets in wild jubilation on getting the news, it is instructive to note that what was being demonstrated on the streets of Niamey, the Nigerien capital, was basically the removal of Tandja. That should not mean endorsement for another un-democratic regime.

Tandja must be held responsible for this affront on democracy, and we recommend that he be tried for crimes against humanity for atrocities committed while trying to suppress the opposition, as such action will serve as deterrent to other leaders with similar plans.

While we urge the people of Niger to continue to defend democracy, regional bodies must put in place stronger measures to combat such unconstitutional change of governments.

Source: www.champion.com.ng

Danjuma’s $500m largesse

The recent confession by former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General T. Y. Danjuma, of how he made a whopping $500million profit from an oil bloc the former Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, awarded to him, has, among others, revealed how the nation’s commonwealth is being shared by a few privileged Nigerians, most of who do not know what to do with their share of the largesse.

Danjuma brought the matter to public knowledge when, at a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) consultative meeting with the theme: “Contributing to Philanthropy in Nigeria,” he explained his resolve to donate $100million out of his huge profit to float a foundation he named T. Y Danjuma Foundation, through which he intends to help the needy in the Nigerian society.

He said the grants from the foundation, which would be channeled to agencies and governments at all levels through NGOs across the country, would be deployed to help in at least three critical sectors of the nation’s economy, which he identified as “festering inadequate healthcare facilities, low quality education and extreme poverty.”

He explained that he decided to set up the foundation and to reach out to the needy because he realized he has become so rich and did not know what to do with the $500million.

Besides, he also realized that his fabulous wealth may cause quarrels among his children and family members when he dies. As he reportedly puts it: “At my age, I am 72 years now, what will I be doing with such money, $500million? … If I put it in the bank, these people will steal it and I don’t want my children to start fighting over money when I die, so I decided to commit 100 million dollars of the money to philanthropic activities that will help lift Nigerian society.”    

Noble as his action appears, there is no doubting the fact that the story of how he got the oil bloc on a platter of gold, how he sold it off to   organizations that have the competence to exploit it and how in the process, he pocketed a mind-boggling profit,  is at the very root of the problems of Nigeria.

What qualified  General Danjuma, who, as a soldier, had lived off Nigeria most of his life, for being specially awarded oil blocs, apparently at little or no cost to him,  by the then Head of State? Is it not one of the clear examples of the evils of military rule in Nigeria, an unfair system, where one man, in the guise of exercising power as Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, arrogates to himself the right to share off the commonwealth of over 150 million people to his personal friends and cronies?

This, of course, is how a few individuals close to the corridors of power, suddenly emerge multi-billionaires at the expense of the state and the common citizens, most of who do not know where the next meal would come from.

We roundly condemn the practice of giving away the people’s commonwealth to a handful of individuals for little or nothing and maintain that when this is done, both the state and the people become ultimate losers. Take the case of Danjuma, for example, while he may be rejoicing that he made $500million personal profit from the oil bloc deal, apparently because he got it for next to nothing, experts are of the view that he grossly under valued the bloc and so, sold it at the give away price of $1 billion. This means that in that oil bloc deal between Abacha and Danjuma, and between Danjuma and the ultimate buyers, the nation and her people have been grossly ripped off.  

This kind of official impunity, generally exhibited by past military leaders was transferred to the last civilian government in the form of import waivers. We condemn totally all these forms of abuse of power and suggest that thorough investigations should be carried out to unearth the details of such unwholesome and unfair diversion of the commonwealth to private pockets.

We believe that if the right thing had been done at the onset, the current proceeds from the oil bloc would have been of greater benefit to much more Nigerians, including the suffering people of the Niger Delta region and other parts of the country than what Danjuma is willing to give out as philanthropy to those impoverished by deals such as that which netted him $500 million.

This is why not many people seem to be impressed by the $100million philanthropic gesture because, in the first instance, the money should actually belong to the same common Nigerians, who are now being presented as beneficiaries who should dance and sing songs of appreciation. Also, given that this particular oil bloc deal is just one of the several juicy deals Danjuma and other bigwigs like him may have benefited from in such manner, he is expected to do much more than he is presently doing in order to level up with the exploited masses of Nigeria, most of who still lack basics like food and shelter.

This is however not to detract from the inherent nobility of Danjuma’s decision to confess and return a little of the people’s wealth unfairly put in his pocket by various past leaders.

Also, taking cognizance of the fact that Danjuma is certainly not the only citizen who has been so favored by various governments, we call on these individuals to please come out and also return part of the commonwealth in their possession for the benefit of the masses and by extension, for their own benefit, because it is the widespread poverty engendered by such situations that lead to increase in the crime rate, which affects both the rich and the poor alike.

Pfizer and Kano’s Trovan victims

Though the recent call by pharmaceuticals company, Pfizer on anyone with proof of participation in its 1996 Trovafloxacin Mesylate (Trovan) test in Kano, to come forward for a claim of USD175, 000 per person (about N26m each), is a welcome development,  the amount is mere pittance when compared to the criminal damage Pfizer did to the victims of their test in  Kano state.

About 200 people in the state took part in the test, which resulted in the death of 11 patients and permanent incapacitation of others.

Pfizer, towards effecting the out-of-court settlement reached, says claimants must come forward with proof of death or permanent incapacitation before they could be compensated. In fact, Pfizer has demanded a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) report as a pre-condition for beneficiaries to draw down on the $75 million judgment money against it.

Pfizer apparently is insisting on this position considering that the trust fund set up by it, in conjunction with the state government to administer compensation to those affected, has received over 600 applications from Kano citizens, all of who claim they took part in the test and ought to be compensated.

Fortunately, Pfizer claims to be in possession of files and documents containing medical records and photographs of those who took part in the test, saying the tests by doctors to determine the real patients will be at no cost to those who come to make claims.

Breakdown of the settlement requires Pfizer to pay $10 million in legal fees, $30 million to the Kano state government and $35 million to the families of children who were drafted into the trial. The settlement also includes a provision that Pfizer rebuilds Kano’s Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH), where the trial took place.

All that apart, what makes the Kano incident very curious is that the test was carried out even when animal testing had indicated that Trovan might cause significant side effects in children such as joint disease, abnormal cartilage growth, a disease resulting in bone deformation and liver damage.

In fact, the drug, which is said to belong to a powerful class of antibiotics called quinolones, in early-stage testing, had caused liver and joint damage in young rats and dogs, which should have ruled out testing in children.

That, apparently, did not matter to Pfizer, which cashed in on the outbreak of meningitis, measles and cholera in Kano, which claimed thousands of lives, to  dispatch its medical team to establish a treatment centre in the state’s IDH.

Otherwise, how come that while other humanitarian organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (“MSF”), also known as Doctors Without Borders, that were in Kano’s IDH in respect of the outbreak, offered the sick safe and effective treatments for bacterial meningitis, Pfizer could only embark on a medical experiment involving the “new, untested and unproven” antibiotic, Trovan?

What happened in Kano in 1996, resulting in many children dying or being deformed through application of the Trovan test drugs, should never have happened and should serve as a big lesson to all other pharmaceutical companies in the world.

It obviously brings to the fore the need for them to conform to ethics in the testing of their new drugs and vaccines. It should also serve as a call on our local pharmaceutical companies to live up to the challenge of research and development of indigenous drugs.

The crisis, no doubt, must have been a 13-year public relations nightmare and a costly legal headache for Pfizer, but it is criminal that in its haste to test Trovan, Pfizer drafted the 200 children into its clinical trial without parental consent, and intentionally low-dosed its control drug to boost the Trovan profile, same way it falsified ethics approval forms.

And this can only happen in Nigeria. Before Pfizer’s 1996 trial, oral Trovan had never been tested for efficacy in children, in part because of concerns over its side effects. So how come nobody thought of, or even cared about these consequences before using them on Nigerian children? 

Where were our own government and hospital officials when Pfizer was conducting the unethical and unprofessional experiments?

Both the Kano and Federal Governments should, as a matter of fact, share in the blame for the pains the drug test must have caused the victims and their families. Rather than sharing in the $75m settlement, these governments should instead be co-accused for standing by and watching while these children were being used as guinea pigs. Everything Pfizer has to offer should go directly to the victims and their families.

 While we support every effort by the company to ensure that only genuine victims benefit from the compensation package, we insist that the amount offered by Pfizer is peanuts when compared to the damage done, because elsewhere, more stringent action would have been taken against company, which explains why some people are not happy that the case was settled out of court, as many issues would have been unearthed had it been allowed to run its full circle in the court.

Source: www.champion.com.ng

Is this cabal more powerful than Nigeria?

The intrigues of a handful of presidential aides over President Umaru Yar’Adua’s illness have become too dangerous to condone any longer. With the connivance of elements within the army, the clique deployed troops on Wednesday last week in Abuja as they smuggled the ailing President home under the cover of darkness.

Completely ignoring the person and office of the Acting President and Commander-in-Chief, the clique deployed soldiers from the Brigade of Guards in the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, where in something close to a coup manoeuvre, they switched off the power supply, transferred the ailing President from an air ambulance to a waiting land ambulance, and took him in a long convoy along a route lined with armed sentries to the presidential villa.

Executed entirely under the cover of darkness, it amounted to the most brazen security breach in the nation since the return to civilian rule in May 1999. Some knowledgeable commentators have already likened it to a coup or, at best, a dress rehearsal for one. It is alarming that troops could be deployed for any purpose in any part of the country, much less in the federal capital, without the knowledge of the Acting President and top defence chiefs. Even the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike, was reportedly kept in the dark about the troop movement.

Since the President’s long-standing ailment took a turn for the worse, necessitating his controversial evacuation to Saudi Arabia on November 23, last year, some presidential aides, allegedly supported by the President’s wife, Turai Yar’Adua, have used his predicament to deny access to him and used his name to promote their own private interests. In the process, they have heated up the polity, created a constitutional dilemma, promoted divisions and threatened democracy.

The troop deployment is one intrigue too many. This dangerous clique of power mongers and insubordinate security officials should be stopped forthwith. Who authorised the Brigade of Guards commander, Brig. Gen. Abdul Mustapha, to seize Abuja airport and the villa? What role did the Army Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Abdurahman Dambazzau, play? If Mustapha did not inform him before the exercise, what action did he take? If he did nothing, then he has lost grip of the army and should be shoved aside promptly.

If, as is widely believed, he was privy to the conspiracy, then he is unfit to continue as COAS. Jonathan should sack him if investigations reveal that he connived in the treasonable act. The argument that the guards have some autonomy in their professional task of protecting the President and his family is self-serving and untenable.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan should not treat this grave security breach with levity or with his usual can’t-hurt-a-fly approach. There are indications that an investigation is under way. All the officials who conspired to smuggle the President into the country without the Acting President’s knowledge should be brought to book. Those still holding ministerial offices should be sacked. There is no point being C-in-C if troops can be deployed with no reference to him or the CDS.

It is tempting to say Jonathan is not safe until those who deployed troops illegally are punished and flushed out of the military. The ensuing investigation should also unearth the role of the National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Sarki Mukhtar(rtd). It has become obvious that the re-professionalisation programme of the armed forces begun in 1999 has suffered a setback. All the efforts made in the last 11 years to insulate the military from politics are being eroded by the unscrupulous clique that is manipulating the President’s unfortunate situation. The clique is reducing the President to a sectional leader and seeking to suck some senior military officers into its deadly gamble.

The officials privy to the Wednesday infamy — Col Mustapha Onoyvieta, the Aide-de-Camp; Yusuf Tilde, the Chief Security Officer; and Mustapha of the Guards Brigade — all report to various security agencies. Their various bosses, those who have not compromised their positions, should query them or replace them forthwith.

Dike should also, on his part, demand an explanation from Dambazzau for the Abuja insubordination and recommend appropriate punitive action to the Acting President.

The Acting President should also order officials to stop telling lies about the President. For three months and more, aides and ministers have lied shamelessly about his health and embarrassed the nation before the international community. Who, for instance, is giving Segun Adeniyi, the President’s Special Adviser on Media, the instructions to dish out the statements and comments he makes from time to time since he has also admitted to not seeing his boss?

Nigerians will not forget also that it is the refusal of the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly to do their patriotic duty by invoking relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution to deal with the cabal’s shenanigans since November last year that has brought the country to this pass and emboldened the clique to more brazen actions.

It is commendable that the Acting President has sought to douse the heat unnecessarily foisted on the nation by the power-mongers, using the physically-incapacitated Yar’Adua, by empanelling a 26-member broad-based advisory board of eminent persons. Such moves are welcome as the nation rallies to confront the rascals toying with our collective destiny.

FEC has run out of excuses to avoid invoking Section 144 of the Constitution that empowers it to declare the President incapable of continuing to govern on account of his health. But it is not too late for the Council to free itself from a cabal that has so far prevented it from performing its role under the Constitution. Apart from dirty politics and sentiments, a President who had to be returned secretly in an ambulance after three months of intensive care abroad is surely unfit to remain in office.

Source: www.punchng.com

Mayhem in Edo Assembly

Adams Oshiomole, Edo State Governor, Nigeria

LAST week, members of the Edo State House of Assembly re-enacted the kind of disreputable conduct that had been so regularly acted out in other legislatures in the country. The Speaker at the time, Hon. Zakawanu Garuba, turned his gavel into a weapon, hitting the head and hands of another lawmaker. A legislator whipped out a teargas canister and sprayed some of his colleagues, with intent to suffocate them. Even more horrifying, another legislator emerged with an axe from his dress and split open the head of a fellow lawmaker.

The immediate cause of the mayhem was the attempt by some lawmakers to impeach Garuba as Speaker. To forestall the plan, Garuba hurriedly adjourned the plenary. His approach was to prevent a member whom he suspected would move the motion for his (Speaker's) ouster. Thereafter, commotion ensued, resulting in a bloodbath.

There can be no justification for honourable members of the legislature behaving like thugs. No matter how heated a debate might be; no matter how provocative a motion might be, lawmakers ought to be able to keep their anger in check. To suddenly lose their cool, and then resort to the use of dangerous weapons inside the otherwise hallowed chambers of the House, is to impugn their own integrity and lower their esteem in the eyes of the public.

Ordinarily, the choice of the principal officers of a legislature is the internal affair of the members. There are no compelling reasons to alter that principle. In exercising their prerogative, the legislators may opt to retain or to remove even their leaders, a fact which has been played out on several occasions in various state legislatures and the National Assembly. Often, though, it boils down to a game of numbers involving the protagonists and antagonists of the targeted officer for impeachment.

Garuba who was Speaker when all hell broke loose in the Edo House last week is a veteran of the somewhat routine but usually charged replacement of the Speaker. He was in the House of Assembly from 2003 to 2007. During that period, he witnessed the ouster of Friday Itulah as Speaker. He was also in the House when, in February 2006, there was another revenge ouster against David Iyoha, who was dropped and Itulah reinstated. In both instances, it was the result of the internal contradictions within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), which held an unassailable majority in the House at the time.

Today, the composition of the Edo House is different. The PDP and the Action Congress (AC) each has 12 seats in the 24-member legislature. When he was elected Speaker in June 2007, Garuba's PDP had a majority of seats (16-8) from the flawed elections two months earlier. Just as Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (AC) judicially ousted Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor (PDP) to become Governor, over time, the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal had reversed the fortunes of the PDP in the Edo House. Last month, in a by-election, the AC trounced the PDP, thus making even the membership of the House.

Every discernible observer could foresee the crisis which engulfed the Edo House last week. Only a few days before, reports were rife about the AC reaching out to some PDP legislators to cross-carpet. The intention being to gain a majority and then assume the Speakership with the least constraint. Zakawanu Garuba, the then Speaker, retorted with a fiat, threatening to declare vacant the seat of any defector. This in spite of the constitutional support for such action, as evidenced, for example, by the crisis that has torn the PDP apart in Edo State. The party has two factional chairmen in the state, even though one is more vociferous.

The desperate attempt by Garuba to cling to the Speaker's chair is condemnable. He was not being recalled from the legislature; and so, he still has his seat as a floor member. As Speaker, he was only first among equals. The Speakership is not his birthright. With the defection of one PDP lawmaker to the AC, the legislature reconvened hours after the bloodbath and elected a protem Speaker, while impeaching and suspending Garuba and a few others. They are to be probed.

We do not expect calm to return so soon. In fact, a clash between supporters of the AC and the PDP was averted by the security agencies, the day after the squabble inside the chamber. But it is unacceptable that the police shut the gates to the Assembly. Save in so far as it was to prevent any breach of the peace, the police must recognise and respect the doctrine of separation of powers. The police cannot shut the lawmakers from their offices and their chamber. What the police should do is to provide the enabling environment for the Assembly to meet. Otherwise, by shutting the Assembly, the police would inadvertently be empowering a few thugs whose aim is to disrupt proceedings of the House.

The security agencies must be vigilant and firm while tempers run high. Only a few days ago, an explosive device, which the police said was capable of causing maximum damage within a radius of at least 250 metres, was discovered beside the perimeter wall of the Assembly complex. It is a frightening development that is bound to escalate the tensions in the House. Already, while the House has elected Hon. Bright Omokhodion as its substantive Speaker, a faction of the PDP has rejected the choice, insisting that Garuba remained the Speaker.

A parallel legislative leadership certainly bodes ill for the state. Ultimately, the tension in the House can be mediated by persons who can exercise moral authority over the lawless lawmakers. We urge their intercession, and let the House resume its regular business on the basis of its preferred leadership.

Nathaniel Idowu (1934-2010)

WITH the death of frontline philanthropist, entrepreneur and lover of sports, Chief Nathaniel Olabiyi Idowu, Nigeria has lost a major supporter of sports as a tool of human and national development. He was an unsung hero of many of Nigeria's accomplishments in sports - football in particular - whose quiet disposition to life arguably put him in virtual obscurity. But that factor did not discourage him. He served and supported the sports sector selflessly for about four decades. He sat on the board of the Nigeria Football Association as a member and later, as vice chairman. He was an outspoken promoter of private sector involvement in football management and an unrelenting critic of government interference. Widely recognised as the doyen of professional football in the country, he set up a professional league board independent of government in 1990, working with then Minister of Sports, Air Commodore Bayo Lawal. He was also the proprietor of the Bhojson Football Club, but his greatest impact lay in the area of philanthropy.

His relationship with sports dates back to his early years in the 1940s as a pupil of St. Paul Anglican Primary School in Ibadan where he was renowned for his academic brilliance as well as his outstanding ability as a sportsman, particularly as a footballer. Even outside the shores of the country, he remained passionate about football, joining the fans club of Tottenham Hotspurs in England while he was a student at the then Northwest Polytechnic.

His selfless spirit and devotion to humanity was remarkable. For example, he single-handedly sponsored the country's participation in some championships, including the national football team at the 1984 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cote d'Ivoire, and before then the Super Eagles trip to a North African country in 1981. He equally played a major role in the Dream Team's quest for gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta in the United States, offering to pay the players' match bonuses and allowances when the football association allegedly failed to meet its obligations. Yet, Chief Idowu never demanded or got anything in return for his support. A man of great humility, he loathed the idea of publicising his contributions. This is a commendable quality in a country where too many persons are self-seeking.

For a man who was so committed to the development of the sports sector, it is ironic that he would be fully acknowledged only after his departure. A close associate of the late philanthropist, Afolabi Gambari, lamented that: "Of the millions of football followers in Nigeria, only a few would readily attest to knowing Chief Idowu and how much he contributed to football development." This is a comment on the value Nigeria places on individuals who serve diligently and selflessly whereas corrupt looters of the treasury are recognised and adored.

In spite of this lack of recognition, Idowu's imprint will endure, even on the international scene. His son, Philips, is a hero in British sports, winning international honours as a triple jumper. Chief Idowu, when confronted with the fact of his son preferring Britain to his country of birth, defended himself that he could not dictate to an adult who had a right to decide what is good for him and more importantly that the inadequacy of training facility is a major setback for the progress of an athlete. Truly, Nigeria does not provide an enabling environment for its many talented citizens in virtually every field of human endeavour. At every occasion, Chief Idowu drew attention to the need for greater investments in sports and the country's rich human resources.

He also served on the board of the regional conglomerate, the Oodua Group as a director for many years. As a businessman and entrepreneur, he successfully managed, among other businesses, a textile manufacturing industry in Ibadan through which he further gave expression to his generous spirit. Every Christmas season, he distributed bales of textile materials to people at the stadium in the Oyo State capital. His philanthropy should serve as a lesson to other wealthy and privileged Nigerians. One great lesson of his life is the passion he brought to bear on any positive cause he believed in, in the service of mankind. His immense wealth may have facilitated his philanthropic disposition but it is not often that we find rich Nigerians who are willing to promote the public good. In 2006, he was deservedly awarded the International Olympic Committee's highest honour, the first Nigerian to be so recognised. Chief Idowu deserves to be honoured, even if post-humously, by either his state (Oyo) or the Federal Government. He will be greatly missed by the sports community.

Source:www.ngrguardiannews.com

Teddy Pendergrass (1950-2010)

Source: Guardian Newspaper (Nigeria)

With the death on January 13, of Theodore DeReese Pendergrass, best known as Teddy Pendergrass or TP, the American music industry lost one of its more notable voices and artistes. Teddy Pendergrass was a multiple Grammy Award nominee, winner of Billboard and American Music Awards, an artist of the very first rank, and one of the leading lights on America's soul and R&B music scene in the 1970s and 1980s, beginning with his chance role ( he had been hired to play the drums) as lead singer for the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes Band. His richly coarse and powerful baritone voice was an unmistakable signature in such classics as 'Wake up Everybody', 'Don't leave me this Way', and 'If you don't Know me by Now'. Pendergrass was obviously the soul of the Harold Melvin Band. He soon got tired of the inequity of hiding his name under Melvin's, so in 1977, he embarked on a solo career with the launch of the album simply and provocatively titled 'TP'. It was the beginning of an extraordinary career.


There was no looking back thenceforth as he notched up with well received albums every year until 1981, including the exciting 'Live Coast to Coast' (1979). In just about five years of a roaringly successful solo career, TP established himself forever as one of the great makers of love songs in the American music industry.
Close to 10 of his albums went Platinum. He was the first African-American male singer to produce five Platinum albums in a row. It is to his credit also that his successful move into a solo career inspired and emboldened not a few lead singers, albeit with different levels of success.
Teddy Pendergrass was a ladies' man with his good looks, and he as well exploited the combination of sex appeal and passion-filled love ballads to boost his music and stage performances. Yet, while his lyrics skirted the edge of eroticism, they could hardly be termed explicit or raw. More than being a music idol, he was a sex symbol and, at his concert performances, he could work women into such frenzy they would reportedly struggled to lay their hands on a TP memento. He relished and responded to this adulation by holding, occasionally, 'women's only' concerts. Love, in its varied forms of expression, was a recurring theme in his songs ('The Love I Lost', 'Love TKO', 'Close the Door', 'I Don't Love You anymore', Turn Off the Lights', 'Don't Leave Me This Way', 'Don't Keep Wasting My Time') and his fans, as well as the larger audience simply loved it - and him - for it.


Teddy Pendergrass belonged to that exceptional, but, sadly, disappearing group of African-American ballad singers (Barry White, Isaac Hayes) who, through their music in the '70s and the '80s, showed a spiritual connection with their African roots in such a way that Africans everywhere could, understand, feel, and relate to the lyrics and/or the beat. Coming shortly after the civil rights movement of the 60s, the music of Teddy Tendergrass and others in the same class further helped to promote black consciousness and identity. TP and his kind in the American music industry showed their generation how to do things differently - sing, love, and dance.


In March 1982, Teddy Pendergrass' ascent was interrupted by a car accident, in circumstances that left him paralysed from the waist down. This was the major test of his life: the incident weakened his voice, his doctors said he might never sing again, and that he had only ten years to live. Besides, his seductive stage showmanship was ended for good. He was at the peak of his career, and yet everything came crashing down in one instant. The singer admitted in his autobiography, Truly Blessed (1998), contemplating suicide. Rather than lose the will to live, however, Teddy Pendergrass, with the love and support of his wife and his mother, sought expert medical help, worked on his voice and, though confined to a wheelchair, released, two years later, the album 'Love Language'. It earned him another Platinum award.


It was an affirmation of love and of life, the triumph of the human spirit over life's vicissitudes. This point Teddy would repeatedly make one way or the other subsequently. For instance, his 2007 live concert was tagged 'Teddy 25: A Celebration of Life, Hope, and Possibilities'. Said his friend and professional collaborator, Kenny Gamble, 'I never saw him pity himself. He stayed busy'.


TP went on to release other records including the inspiring 'Life is a Song worth Singing'. In 1984, he did a duet, "Hold Me", with the then little-known Whitney Houston. He also established the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance to help people with spinal cord injuries. In 1985, he participated in the Live Aid charity concert. In 2001, he did live shows that were sold out but he admitted this took a huge toll on him. Before his death, he was working on a musical documentary of his life titled 'I am who I am'.


He could no longer prance about on stage, but singing from a wheelchair, his musical influence remained strong. He will continue to be remembered for his originality and courage, as much as for the central lesson of his career: the need to strike a proper balance between career success and a private life of dalliance to prevent the kind of tragedy that befell the richly gifted TP.

The Akwa Ibom Debacle On Child Rights

AGAINST widespread reports of child abuse and stigmatisation in the state, the decision of the Akwa Ibom state Government to enact a law on Child Rights should be commended. For too long, religious profiteers and self-acclaimed exorcists have capitalised on the pervasive poverty in the land to stigmatise children as witches or wizards; and then go on to abuse them under the pretext of exorcising demons.

We urge the Akwa Ibom state Government to implement the new law strictly, fish out offenders and sanction them as appropriate. However, although the state has taken the initiative in enacting the Child Rights law, the social vice of child abuse is widespread. Other states which in the last eight years have refused to pass the Child Rights Law, on the unjustifiable ground that it violates cultural and religious beliefs, should emulate the Akwa Ibom example and do so.

Nigeria is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Child Rights, 1989 which at least 24 states of the federation are required to endorse through their domestic laws. So far, about 18 states have embraced the convention. In view of the Akwa Ibom experience, and the likelihood of more bizarre situations in other parts of the country, there is need for urgent proactive measures against child abuse at national and state levels. But more important is the need to apprehend and sanction violators of the law.
Both the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly and Governor Godswill Akpabio of the State resorted to the law in apparent response to the recent broadcast on UK Channel 4 of a documentary titled 'Saving Africa's Witch Children.' In the documentary, which gave a detailed account of sheer cruelty towards children, one Bishop Sunday Ulup-Aya claimed to have "killed" 110 child witches. Upon his arrest by the Police, following sustained public outrage, he modified this to mean that he did not kill the children physically, but the demonic spirit in them.

Two Non-Governmental Organisations, Stepping Stones Nigeria (SSN) and the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) have applauded the Akwa Ibom state Government's swift response to the documentary and the concern that it generated. Stigmatising children and branding them 'witches' and 'wizards' is certainly an unacceptable practice in this day and age. Its representation by the documentary casts a big slur on Nigeria's image abroad. Besides the fact that witchcraft cannot be proven scientifically, stigmatizing anyone as a witch and discriminating against such persons is an outright abuse of human rights.

It is lamentable that centuries after the legendary Mary Slessor rescued twins in the Eastern part of the country from being labelled as 'evil' and disposable, a similar belief and practice still exists across the country. We have little doubt that the Akwa Ibom episode is being regularly replicated in other parts of the country. Sometime ago, a television documentary showed how some children in Lagos had their hands burnt on account that they allegedly harboured evil spirits.

It is equally worrisome that some churches, which are supposed to preach the messages of peace, love and forgiveness are in the forefront of the rituals of exorcism and hate. We are confounded because the Scriptures do not recommend the methods of physical and mental torture adopted by these churches for expelling evil spirits. Socially too, such practices negate the standards of counselling and rehabilitation of persons that may have been identified as deviant.

In any event, since the law does not recognise witchcraft, anyone purporting to abuse a child, or inflict bodily harm for that reason, should be made to face the music. In the absence of a standard means of verifying a claim of witchcraft, it will be dangerous to tolerate exorcism anchored on deliberate bodily harm and death. An innocent person could well become a victim of such heinous acts as has been the case in Akwa Ibom state.

Under the Child Rights law, passed by the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly and signed by Governor Akpabio, anyone involved in any form of torture, trial by ordeal or inhuman treatment of a child, purportedly to cure, purge or exorcise such a child of witchcraft would be liable to 10 years imprisonment without an option of fine. To ensure speedy trial of offenders under the law, the Governor further announced the establishment of a special family court to determine matters related to children. These measures are welcome.

As future leaders, children must be protected from acts capable of eroding their confidence and self-esteem. It is noteworthy that the Akwa Ibom Child Rights law makes it mandatory for parents and guardians to send children to school under the government's free and compulsory education scheme. No effort should be spared to ensure conformity with the law.

Beyond this, there is need for public enlightenment. We share the concern of the SSN programme Director, Gary Foxcroff that that the vast majority of Akwa Ibomites including commissioners, legislators, policy makers, police and social welfare teams, and even ordinary persons believe that children can be witches. Some people even tend to associate ailments such as epilepsy with witchcraft. The abuse of child rights is likely to continue for as long as this superstition endures. There is need for a government-private sector partnership, to launch a widespread and relentless campaign to educate

Guardian Newspaper (Nigeria)

A Prayer For Aunty Dora

Make no mistake about it. I am a great fan of Dr. Dora Akunyili. It is impossible not to love this exceptional Nigerian who took on the murderers among us who usually travel all the way to Asia to import fake and extremely dangerous drugs, all in the name of making money by any means possible. It is doubtful if any Nigerian woman, dead or alive, is more popular with the ordinary and not so ordinary Nigerians. The passion with which she has fought the demons among us has been acknowledged and appreciated by most of us. Even the Columbians would be grateful to have a Dr. Akunyili to tackle the drug warlords who have turned their country and beyond into a land of misery.

Dr. Dora Akunyili has since become an accomplished bullet dodger in the process of executing her crusade. Her life has been critically threatened. Her brother was only recently abducted by God-knows-who. Thank God nothing untoward happened to him. There is no limit to what evil people can get up to. The case of Aunty Dora, as many admirers fondly call her, is like that of someone riding the tiger. How do you climb down without being devoured by the wild animal?

I met this highly emotional lady several years ago and I instantly fell in love with her great aura. In her simplicity, Aunty Dora is a very natural woman. She radiates undiluted beauty in her mostly traditional dresses. She’s a roaring lioness who screams her self hoarse when confronted by evil. She’s a devout Catholic who believes in the service of her creator. Her daughter was getting married in Cote D’ivore and we had offered to cover it free of charge. It was our modest contribution to a woman who had worked tirelessly at protecting our lives. She never forgot the simple favour. I was so moved to tears when she turned up at my mum’s funeral last year, all the way in our little town of Gbongan in Osun State. She stood by us like an Iroko tree as if the dead was her mum.


Most of her critics have always alleged that Dora Akunyili is a media creation. My defence has always been that the media is always a much-needed tool for any crusade. All the powerful and largely successful members of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s kitchen cabinet were close to the press. Nasir El Rufai had the media in tow as he waged a physical and metaphysical war against very powerful landlords in Abuja. God had to intercede on his behalf to survive the virulent attacks against his person. His good friend, the demoted police officer, Nuhu Ribadu, has not been that lucky. But the media has remained so loyal, despite the fact that Obasanjo went overboard in the powers of life and death given to Ribadu and the supersonic promotions he got as reward for his effort.

The World Bank expert, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala enjoyed a whirlwind romance with the media. So did her hardworking colleague, Oby Ezekwesili. Sometimes too they suffered some media bashing. But they were the authentic gladiators who could never be ignored. Dora Akunyili was primus inter pare in that league. You must get the flow of my preamble by now.

The recent appointment of Aunty Dora as Minister of Information and Communications caught many of us unawares. I’m sure it must have hit her like a thunderbolt. Everyone had hoped that she would be posted to the health ministry, where she’s expected to perform wonders again. Our health sector has been comatose for decades and we are desperately in need of a magician like Dora Akunyili. But most of the appointments in Nigeria always numb our senses. There are two theories in the case of Aunty Dora. One is that the Yar’Adua government perceives her as a media-friendly woman, and would love to tap into her goodwill. The other is that some fifth columnists want to rubbish her integrity by inviting her to sell a difficult product.

That is why I believe Aunty Dora deserves our prayers. The fears of most of us are not misplaced. This government is slower than a snail. The taciturnity of this government is legendary. The president of Africa’s most populous nation vanished into thin air without a trace for nearly three weeks. He simply vamoosed without any of the geniuses in power thinking that he owes the nation an explanation. A simple matter of appointing ministers became a matter that dragged on for eternity. And if the new ministers were expected to rejuvenate the ailing government, we were soon deflated by the sheer irrationality of the appointments. All manner of over-recycled people were dumped on us in a country of over 140 million people. Unfortunately for us, ours is not a place where people can reject appointments. Even those who have achieved or acquired everything in life still crave appointments. Power is the greatest aphrodisiac in Nigeria.

It is under this complex condition that a wonderful lady like Aunty Dora is expected to operate. It is certainly a tough job. What makes the job tougher is that I know that terrain a bit. The civil servants are going to give her plenty of grief. There is no escape. They have been around for a long time, and have perfected the art of perfidy. My files in the ministry have developed wings on several occasions. And most people tend to be experts at dodging responsibilities. Nothing moves them. Everyone has one godfather or the other who can protect him on the day of reckoning. They can turn a man into a goat and a dog into a woman. There is nothing like the fear of God. I have tried to preach to a few friends around that money can never solve all problems but goodwill can take care of most needs.

Aunty Dora would also have to contend with the impatience of our people. Nigerians have been so badly battered and are tired of the insensitivity of the men and women in power who only see government as an invitation to treat, and never as service to the people. The people are not interested in propaganda and falsehood. They want food and shelter. They want good healthcare. Whosoever can make that happen is their friend. He would always occupy a special space in their hearts.I believe Aunty Dora will try her best. We hope her bosses will make the job easier for her by doing what is right most of the time. She must also restructure her ministry by attracting the kind of people who understand modern techniques of communications and have the tools to work with. The era of pushing files up and down at ministries should be a thing of the past by now. Files would stop disappearing when the right structures are erected. Training of personnel is also very important, and those not trainable, should be phased out gradually. Nigeria can not continue to function as if we live in a jungle. We are well-endowed and should make the best of all that we’ve been blessed with.

Information should be about the nation and not about government events. Most news on government channels are repugnant. On the day Yinka Craig died, I laboured in vain to see how his life and times would be celebrated. Nigerians simply carried on as if nothing happened. Please compare this to how the Americans celebrate their fallen heroes. Nigerians need some respite very desperately. Life is hard and miserable. The roads are bad despite the billions we see in every year’s budget. No water. No electricity. The hospitals are sick to the high heavens. It is bad news everywhere you turn. The Minister of Information should not just inform the people, she should be bold to inform the government about its failings. The feed-back she gives would always keep the government alive to its responsibilities. This she owes her fans like me.

Pendulum By Dele Momodu [Thisday]