Atiku opens upon OBJ, El-Rufai

Justice Archibong:How AGF, CJN deceivedMr President Page 13

Igbos are Africa’smost entrepreneurialgroup Page 7

How NAFDAC checkmatesadverse drug reaction

Page 12

By CHRIS DNK RICHARDS

Since leaving office in May2007, former VicePresident Atiku Abubakar

has, for the first time, spokenextensively on certain aspectsof the privatization progra-mme of the Obasanjo adminis-tration, insisting that hishands remain clean as far asthe sale of public entities was

concerned.In an interview he granted

an on-line publisher, Atikumaintained that former Minis-ter of the Federal Capital Ter-ritory (FCT), Mallam AhmedNasir el-Rufai, has many ques-tions to answer concerning hisrole in the involvement ofPentascope and Motorola in themanagement contract forNITEL and its subsidiary GMS

outfit, M-TEL.“On Pentascope, one would

have expected your paper todirect the questions to El-Rufaihimself. The Pentascope scan-dal was one of the issues inves-tigated by the National Assem-bly and it accused El-Rufai ofignoring wise counsel by impos-ing the company on NITEL.Despite proven allegations thatPentascope was not financially

capable and technically com-petent to handle NITEL man-agement contract, the formerBureau of Public Enterprise Di-rector-General ignored publicoutcry and forced the Dutchcompany on NITEL,” said theformer vice-president.

He recalled that before thecoming of Pentascope, NITELwas making an estimatedN100bn profit annually.

“However, as soon asPentascope took over, NITEL’sprofits were nose-diving incred-ibly. With telecom stakehold-ers, the National Assembly andthe Nigerian public insistingthat the imposition ofPentascope on NITEL was ruin-ous to national interest, theFederal Government eventu-ally cancelled the managementcontract against El-Rufai’s de-sire. I had no hand, absolutely,no connection or knowledge ofhow that company wasbrought into Nigeria. Curi-ously, El-Rufa’i avoided thePentascope issue in his book,“The Accidental Public Ser-vant.” Therefore, if there isanybody to explain the detailsof the Pentascope scandal, it isEl-Rufai himself,” he stated.

(See full interview onpages 5 & 19)

Crisis in LagosPDP vindicates

us – ACN… Insists

Jonathan usingSURE-P for 2015campaigns

By JACOB KUBEKAThe Action Congress of

Nigeria (ACN) says the crisisthat is presently tearing theLagos PDP apart, over thesharing of SURE-P fundsamong its members in thestate, has vindicated the ACNstands that the funds meantto cushion the effects of fuelsubsidy removal have nowbecome a 2015 campaign

By ATI TERKULA,Makurdi

It is no longer news thatthe Benue State gover-nor, Hon. GabrielSuswam over 30 days agosacked thirteen mem-bers of his executivecouncil. The move whichwas taken to inject new

Anxiety inBenue

... As Suswamruns govt withoutcommissioners

Continued on Page 2

L-R: Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji MuhammadSani-Sidi; Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan; Minister of Environment, Hajiya HadizaMailafiya and others at 2013 NEMA Summit at Rockview Hotel, Abuja, recently.

Photo: Rommy Uwanaka.

Continued on Page 2

April 1, 2013 Vol. 3, No. 197 No. 1, IDS Close,Off Kashim Ibrahim Road, GRA, Makurdi.

... says Ex-FCT Minister failed transparency test

2 National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

newsAnxiety in Benue ...

Continued from Page 1`

Continued from Page 1

Crisis in Lagos PDPvindicates us – ACN

blood in the life of his ad-ministration as these com-missioners had spent almost5 years in their positions,while some were dropped outof general public outcry ofunderperformance.

It is also no longer newsthat since the removal of thecommissioners, ministries inthe state have been runwithout commissioners asPermanent Secretaries havenow become heads of theirrespective ministries, asituation which has becomea cog in the running andadministration of theseministries, save for the foursurviving commissionerswho unfortunately have notdistinguished themselves.However, this stalemate iscausing anxiety in the mindsof Benue people as the stateis being administeredwithout commissioners andthe alleged inability of thegovernor to appointreplacements.

National Accord gatheredthat since the sack of the 13Commissioners, Gov.Suswam has allegedlyavoided all public outings tosupposedly wade offlobbyists. This is even as hehas resorted to travelling outof the state especially toAbuja and using everyopportunity to go abroad asa strategy to avoid thesepoliticians laying in wait forhis return. Even on Suswam’sreturn two weeks ago it was

Indiscriminate parking of tippers and trucks on the Mararaba/Keffi Expressway in Karu LGA that often causes road accidents.Photo: Dominic Akpensuen

war chest for PresidentGoodluck Jonathan.

In a statement issued inLagos on Sunday by itsNational Publicity Secretary,Alhaji Lai Mohammed, theparty says when it alerted thenation on the abuse of theSURE-P funds in a statementon Feb. 3rd 2013, the FG aswell as SURE-P managersrushed to deny any abuse ofthe funds and called ACNunprintable names.

The ACN maintained thattoday, the truth has prevailedas the PDP membersthemselves have confirmedthat the SURE-P funds arebeing shared among themacross the federation.

The statement wentfurther to thank those behindthe alleged hijacking of theSURE-P funds meant for thePDP members in Lagos Stateby the Bode George-ledfaction and the crisis that ithas generated, stressing thatthe nation can now see thatthe Jonathan administrationhas willfully converted themoney accruing from SURE-P to campaign funds.

ACN alleges that, this is avery serious violation of theconstitution, because theState ImplementationCommittee (SIC), a body notrecognized by law, was set upby the ruling party todistribute the SURE-Plargesse to its members in allthe states of the federation.

It recalls that money beingspent on fuel subsidies was inthe past taken out of theFederation Account; hence itis the money that would havebeen divided among the threetiers of government inaccordance with the revenueallocation formula.

‘’But by virtue of theSURE-P arrangement, partsof the funds are now availablefor the federal government toshare freely by approvingcontracts, programmes andactivities in accordance withits whims and caprices. ThePDP-controlled governmenthas now seen the accruinghuge funds as money whichmay well be spent withspecial favour for its croniesand party affiliates, withoutregard to the constitution.For President Jonathan, thisis an impeachable offence,’’ACN said.

The party, in order tobuttress its point on theabuse of the SURE-P funds,purported that most, if not allthe state coordinators forPresident Jonathan’scampaign in 2011 are also thecurrent state coordinatorsfor SURE-P, adding that thisis not a mere coincidence buta well-orchestrated attemptto give the Jonathancampaign an unfair headstart ahead of 2015 withpublic funds.

It listed some of thecoordinators as: Alhaji BodeOyedele (Lagos); Mr. JosephIshekpa (Nasarawa); Alhaji

Garba A. Kurfi (Katsina);Alhaji Aliyu Mamman(Niger); Alhaji Adamu YaroGombe (Gombe); Hon FemiAkinyemi (Ekiti); JarigbeAgbom Jarigbe (Cross River);Chief Abdullahi Ohioma(Kogi); Dare Adeleke (Oyo);Alhaji Al-Kasim Madoka(Kano) and Alhaji Kolo Bukar(Borno).

On the crisis in Lagos PDPover the SURE-P largesse,ACN said a public statementby a faction of the PDP inLagos has let the cat out of thebag.

The PDP factionalstatement said, inter alia;“Bode Oyedele cannotcoordinate Sure-P in LagosState. We reject him. He haspacked all Bode George’sagents as Sure-Pbeneficiaries. Is this theobjective of Sure-P? Somelocal governments like Eti-Osa, Ajeromi, and LagosIslands etc. Please find outhow they got thebeneficiaries.

‘’In Eti-Osa there arenames of criminals asbeneficiaries, especiallyWard HI. This is a waste ofsubsidy money and defeatingthe objective of theprogramme. There areresponsible eminent citizenswho should be contacted toverify and screen thesubmission of names forbeneficiaries but BodeGeorge’s loyalists are puttingnames of touts andmiscreants for his ownpersonal agenda. We won’tallow this to happen. Weintend to go to court to obtainan order to dissolve the stateExco if the CaretakerCommittee won’t do it.’’

ACN said from the state-ment above by members ofthe PDP themselves no oneshould be left in any doubtthat the SURE-P funds havenow become campaign fundsfor President Jonathan andhis party ahead of 2015.

‘’On the basis of this, we arenow calling for anindependent investigationinto how the money accruingto SURE-P has beendisbursed since the inceptionof the programme, with aview to establishing to whatextent the funds have beenabused, and in order toprescribe the appropriatesanctions for those foundculpable,’’ it said.

revealed that he took refugein one of the deputygovernor’s lodges in the townto wade off pressure as suchthe deputy now hostsdignitaries on his behalf.

To further heighten thepeople’s anxiety is last week’sreshuffle of permanentsecretaries in the state. Amove judged by watchers toaim at placing round pegs inround holes to properposition the ministries to runproperly withoutcommissioners during thisendless wait.

In the wake of theperceived pressure, thegovernor only last weekannounced the creation of anew ministry which hasalready had a permanentsecretary appointed to manit. This move may haveattributed to Suswam’s desireto make space for moreloyalists and avoid coercionwith the many lobbyists. Thisbrings the number ofministries to 18 and thecommissioners for Benueappointed to 14 as against theoriginal 13 that were relievedof their appointments.

Meanwhile speculationsare rife that somecommissioners that werebooted out may surprisinglyresurface when Suswamfinally submits his sacred listto the Benue State House ofAssembly. Amongst thosesuspected to make acomeback are Hon. JohnTondo, Mrs. Comfort Ajene,and Hon. Benjamin Ashaver.

news3National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

In his determination toleave a legacy behindafter the expiration of

his tenure and give thepeople a sense of belongingBauchi State governor,Malam Isa Yuguda throughAlhaji Salisu Mai Sugar inBauchi provided over 8,400bags of assorted food itemsfor distribution to thedisabled persons across the20 local government areasin the state.

Bauchi gov donates food items to destitutes

L-R: Eze Igbo 1 of Abuja, Eze Nwosu Ibe and the head of Igbos in Ibadan and Oyo State HRH, EzeDr. Alex Anozie at the meeting of Eze Ndigbo in diaspora in Abuja, recently. Photo: Rommy Uwanaka

The consignment was meantfor distribution to the blind per-sons, lepers, cripple, and deafand dumb in the state with aview to alleviating their suffer-ings and discouraged them fromstreet begging.The food itemsconsist of 4,100 bags of Maize,2,300 bags of Sorghum and2,000 bags of rice.

Alhaji Abdullahi Jibrin whilereceiving the food items fromthe representative of the stategovernment, Alhaji salisu MaiSugar, said the items will bedistributed across the 20 local

government areas of the statefor subsequent distribution tothe disabled persons.

He used the forum to thankthe government for theproviding the items, saying ithas given them a sense ofbelonging. He therefore assuredthe government that thedisabled persons will redoubletheir efforts towards praying forthe success of the goodgovernance of Bauchi stateunder Isa Yuguda as well aspeace and prosperity of thecountry.

By USMAN SHEHU, Bauchi

accord classifiedPUBLIC NOTICE

THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THEABOVE NAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED FORREGISTRATION TO CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSIONUNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIEDMATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.TRUSTEES:1. DR.MOHAMMED SANTURAKI            - CHAIRMAN2. MRS. FATIMA SANTURAKI3. MUHAMMED SANTURAKI4. HAJIYA KHADIJAH MASHEGU          - SECRETARYAIMS AND OBJECTIVES:1. Helping,empowering and educating the less privileged.Any objection to this REGISTRATION should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, 420, TigrisCrescent,Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, PMB 198, Matiama, Abuja within28 days from the date of publication.

Signed:S.OGHAYEI (08032167288)

NNAGI-SALIMA FOUNDATIONPUBLIC NOTICE

SPRINKLE OF LOVE INITIATIVETHIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THEABOVE NAMED INITIATIVE CLUB HAS APPLIED FORREGISTRATION TO CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSIONUNDER PART C OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIEDMATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.TRUSTEES:1. MRS.JUMAIMA INALEGWU ODUMU2. MR.INALEGWU ODUMU3. BARR.PETER LEMUT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:1. To show love to the less priviledge in the society.2.To support and empower orphans and widows in the society.Any objection to this REGISTRATION should be forwarded tothe Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, 420, TigrisCrescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, PMB 198, Matiama, Abujawithin 28 days from the date of publication.

Signed: Secretary

PUBLIC NOTICEBOLU OWOTOMO CHARITY

FOUNDATIONTHIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVENAMED FOUNDATION HAS APPLIED FOR REGISTRATION TOCORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION UNDER PART C OF THECOMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT NO. 1 OF 1990.TRUSTEES:1. BOLU OWOTOMO2. DOYIN OWOTOMO3. SEGUN OWOTOMOAIMS AND OBJECTIVES1.To provide assistance to the less privileged.2. To cater for and assist the needy.Any objection to this REGISTRATION should be forwarded to theRegistrar-General. Corporate Affairs Commission, 420, TigrisCrescent,Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, PMB 198,Matiama, Abuja within 28days from the date of publication.

Signed: Barr.Yomi Sanya & CoLegal Practitioners

The Japanese Embassy inNigeria has joined effortswith the International In-

stitute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA) and Afe Babalola Univer-sity Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) to helpfarmers.

To demonstrate their com-mitment, the three institutionshave signed a memorandum ofunderstanding to improve cas-sava production and processingfor Agbekoya farmers in Ekitistate.

Specifically, IITA will pro-vide the Ekiti State Chapter ofAgbekoya Farmers Association,600 bundles of improved cas-sava cuttings. In addition, IITAwill provide 30 Agbekoya farm-ers with trainings in the opera-tion/use of cassava processingmachines and 10 Agbekoyafarmers with training in themaintenance of cassava pro-cessing machines.

The Japanese Embassy onthe other hand will provide twocassava processing centers forthe farmers while ABUADwould provide monitoring/training services.

At the signing of the MoU inIbadan on Monday, Dr KentonDashiell, Deputy Director Gen-eral (Partnerships & CapacityDevelopment) for IITA, ex-pressed optimism that the col-laboration would contribute toimproving the livelihoods ofcassava farmers, especiallywomen and youth who play apivotal role in cassava process-ing.

Giving a background on howthe collaboration came to be, DrDashiell said the partnership tohelp farmers was an outcome ofan earlier meeting between DrNteranya Sanginga, IITA Direc-tor General; and the Ambassa-dor, Embassy of Japan in Nige-ria, His Excellency Mr RyuichiShoji.

In that meeting, the twoleaders agreed to join efforts inalleviating poverty in Africa.

The deputy director general

Japan, IITA, and ABUAD injoint efforts to help farmers

also noted that the developmentof cassava along the value chainis critical for Africa to unleashthe potential of the root crop.

“To make cassava work forthe poor, we need to produceand also process it into productssuch as gari, fufu, high qualitycassava flour etc. We believethat value addition throughprocessing is an important as-pect for us to advance the po-tential of cassava,” Dr Dashiellsaid.

According to him, theproject in Ekiti will contributein several ways: it will createjobs, improve incomes, opennew markets for farmers, andimprove the Nigerian economy.

His Excellency Shoji said theprovision of cassava processingcenters under the collaborationfor farmers was part of effortsto support the AgriculturalTransformation Agenda of theNigerian government. He alsothanked IITA for its contribu-tion to the success of theproject, adding that the projectwould alleviate poverty and en-hance food security.

President General of theAgbekoya Farmers,Kamorudeen Aremu Okikiolacommended IITA, the JapaneseEmbassy and ABUAD for theirsupport to farmers. He called onother development and researchorganizations in Nigeria toemulate the intervention.

Established in 1967, IITAand its major partner, the Na-tional Root Crops Research In-stitute (NRCRI) have developedover 40 improved cassava vari-eties. These varieties are highyielding and resistant to mostpest and diseases. Among thevarieties are those that are richin provitamin A that havebeen developed in collaborationwith HarvestPlus.

Efforts by IITA in cassavaresearch have contributed inmaking Nigeria the world’s larg-est producer of cassava withabout 52million tons in 2011.

FCT Minister, Senator BalaAbdulkadir Mohammedhas assured that affected

original inhabitants of FCT liv-ing within the areas earmarkedfor the land swap policy wouldbe carried along in the imple-mentation of the programme.

He stated that they wouldnot be abandoned to the ele-ments as their wellbeing wouldbe adequately captured. Hetherefore advised them not to

Land Swap: FCT minister assures affected indigenesof wellbeing ... Says programme is for accelerated devt

allow themselves to be used astool by those scheming to politi-cize the policy which is intendedto accelerate infrastructure andhousing development in theFCT.

SA Media to the Hon. Min-ister of FCT, Nosike Ogbuenyiin a release stated that the min-ister gave the assurance in ameeting with relevant officialsin his office. According to himthe Minister said that the land

swap system was adopted as away of fast-tracking develop-ment to keep pace with the everincreasing population of FCT.He described Abuja as the fast-est growing city in Africa stress-ing that there would be a demo-graphic disaster unless a revo-lutionary measure like the landswap system was taken to pro-vide decent and affordablehousing for the residents in-cluding the original inhabitants.

4 Monday, April 1, 2013, National Accord

interview5National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

As a founding member of thePeoples Democratic Party, whydid you leave your party for theopposition Action Congress in2006?

I had to leave because I waspushed to the limit. You know whathappened during that period and wedon’t have to go through it all overagain. A scheme was introduced, bywhich I and my supporters were re-moved from the party under the guiseof re-registration. Of course, the big-ger scheme was to ensure that I didnot succeed my boss (OlusegunObasanjo). You saw how the cardswere stacked against me to pursue mypresidential aspiration under PDP.They had me suspended from theparty, even beyond the length of timepermitted by the PDP constitution.The party rejected and flouted allcourts orders in respect of my rightsas a party member.

Events were unfolding rapidly andI had a deep conviction that with thehelp of the courts, we could establisha precedent to ensure that no onetrampled upon the rights of citizens– not just I – and got away scot-free.I was eventually compelled to seekalternative platform to prove thispoint and to advance my aspiration.That was how I joined others to foundthe Action Congress.

Why did you later dump ACto go back to the PDP, despiteyour vow never to do so?

Don’t forget that I was among thefounding members of the PDP. I wasforced to leave the party and I joinedAC then because forces in the party(PDP) were ferociously determined tofrustrate me at all costs. However,when the late President Umaru MusaYar’Adua was elected as the Presi-dent, he initiated the policy of recon-ciliation and appealed to aggrievedmembers to return. The committeefor this purpose was headed byformer Vice-President AlexEkwueme.

I invested energy, time and politi-cal capital in the formation of the PDPand, therefore, because of that senti-mental attachment, I responded tothe policy of reconciliation and re-turned to the fold. Should you blamea child for reconciling with his par-ents after he ran away over disagree-ment? The circumstances of my de-parture from PDP are well known toNigerians. When I returned, I did soto promote the growth of what Ihelped to build in the first place.

Basically, the destruction of inter-nal democracy in PDP made me toleave the party against my will. Youare aware of the policy of de-regis-tration of certain party members bythe former President. My supportersand I were the target of this hostileand anti-democratic policy. I was

Atiku opens up on OBJ, El-Rufa’iFormer Vice-President Atiku Abubakar during theChief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration between1999 and 2007. The founding member of the rulingPeoples Democratic Party shares his experience inthe party and the privatisation exercise under hisleadership in this online interview with LEKE BAIYEWU.

between the rock and the hard placeand, ultimately, I was technically ex-pelled from PDP by the hand-pickedparty national executives. It is,therefore, unfair for anybody to de-scribe my departure from PDP as op-portunistic, considering the insur-mountable and deliberate obstacleslaid on my path by the former Presi-dent (Obasanjo) and the party na-tional leadership.

When you were the chairmanof the National Council onPrivatization and also as formerVice- President, you were ac-cused of selling major publiccorporations to political officeholders, including yourself.One of such is Pentascope. Howtrue is it that the privatizationprocess was shady?

These allegations are not new. Theinteresting thing is that those spread-ing these allegations couldn’t comeforward with any iota of proof againstme. You forgot that I was accused ofselling African Petroleum to myself,using a front. However, when thefacts eventually emerged in respectof this particular allegation, my tra-ducers were disarmed and wereforced to retreat. Indeed, I was themost investigated public office holderunder the former administrationand, if this allegation was valid, itcould have been conveniently usedto bring me down and tarnish myname. Thank God I survived thissmear campaign, just like others be-fore it.

The Senate conducted a publichearing on privatization under myleadership as the chairman of theNational Council on Privatization.That was the best opportunity forthose accusing me of selling publicassets to myself to come forward toprove the allegation. Surprisingly,they never did because they reliedmainly on hearsay. A cabinet mem-ber in Obasanjo’s government, whowas promoting this idle rumour, waseventually left looking small becausehe didn’t have the facts to substanti-ate his allegations against me.

On Pentascope, one would haveexpected your paper to direct thequestions to El-Rufai himself. ThePentascope scandal was one of the

issues investigated by the NationalAssembly and it accused El-Rufai ofignoring wise counsel by imposing thecompany on NITEL. Despite provenallegations that Pentascope was notfinancially capable and technicallycompetent to handle NITEL manage-ment contract, the former Bureau ofPublic Enterprise Director-Generalignored public outcry and forced theDutch company on NITEL. Before thecoming of Pentascope, NITEL wasmaking an estimated N100bn profitannually. However, as soon asPentascope took over, NITEL’s prof-its were nose-diving incredibly. Withtelecom stakeholders, the NationalAssembly and the Nigerian public in-sisting that the imposition ofPentascope on NITEL was ruinous tonational interest, the Federal Govern-ment eventually cancelled the man-agement contract against El-Rufai’sdesire. I had no hand, absolutely, noconnection or knowledge of how thatcompany was brought into Nigeria.Curiously, El-Rufa’i avoided thePentascope issue in his book, “TheAccidental Public Servant.” There-fore, if there is anybody to explainthe details of the Pentascope scandal,it is El-Rufai himself. The fact of thecontract are like this: Obasanjoagreed with the NCP that the formerBPE DG was wrong not to have dis-closed his interest and that he hadfailed the test of transparency by notdisclosing that his brother was on theboard of Motorola. I know you arevery familiar with the laws of the fed-eration. You know, for instance, thatit is a very serious offence to fail,refuse or neglect to disclose your in-terest whether directly or throughsomeone else, in dealing with such an

important transaction. But, the Presi-dent in his wisdom decided that thecontract be split into three, with eachof the contenders, Motorola, Ericssonand the Chinese company – I thinkHuawei – taking a portion. As if to vin-dicate the NCP, by 2007 when we leftoffice, the two others apart fromMotorola had completed their owncontracts. You can go and find out ifthey (Motorola) have finished.

El-Rufai, has challenged youto explain what happened withthe NITEL GSM contract thatMotorola lost to Ericson, de-spite the American companysubmitting the lowest bid?What is your explanation?

Personally, I dislike the idea ofexchanging words with the formerFCT minister over this issue. But forthe sake of your question, I would likeNigerians to be smart enough to readbetween the lines. Why does theformer FCT minister treat theMotorola issue with such persistentpersonal bitterness? Why is he mak-ing it a heavy matter? Anybody canplay to the gallery and deceive thepeople. Transparency is a key issueof conducting any business, includ-ing privatization. Conflict of interestis inconsistent with transparency. Ifyou are a privatization head and youhave a relationship with a particularperson connected with one of thecompanies making bids, it is a moraland legal duty to disclose that rela-tionship or interest. Pretending thatyou have no relationship with theperson who is rooting for a particu-lar bidder is not altogether tidy andtransparent. If he had no interest in aparticular company for sentimentalreasons, why is he making too muchfuss about Motorola losing the bid?Did El-Rufai accuse me of promotingEricsson because I had any connec-tion with the company directly or in-directly? If, indeed, I had promotedEricsson for personal interest,Obasanjo wouldn’t have let me getaway with it. He would have exposedme and disgraced me, and even or-dered my prosecution.

Why is it that these corpora-tions have relatively failed, de-spite being run by private inves-tors?

I don’t agree with you thatprivatization has failed altogether,despite the challenges some of thenew investors are facing. The GSMoperators in the country are doingwell, despite their challenges causedby infrastructural problems in thecountry. Look at banks and ports,they all are doing well. Some of thenew investors are finding difficulties,maybe as a result of the scope of thechallenges or ill-preparation. Some ofthem have resorted to asset strippingrather than restoring the companiesto functional state and start produc-tion to create jobs, such as theAjaokuta Steel Plant. Large-scaleprivatization is relatively new in Ni-geria and some of the new investorsappear to have swallowed more thanthey can chew. But the privatizationexercise under me was a narrative ofhuge success, not of failure.

Continued on Page 19

Atiku Abubakar

Why does the former FCT minister treat the Motorolaissue with such persistent personal bitterness? Whyis he making it a heavy matter? Anybody can playto the gallery and deceive the people. Transpar-ency is a key issue of conducting any business,including privatization. Conflict of interest is incon-sistent with transparency.

6 National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

editorial

The decision of the Abia StateUniversity authorities towithdraw the certificate they

issued to their former governor,Orji Uzoh Kalu, over eleven yearsago on the ground that it was is-sued in error is a sad commentaryon our national life.

Orji Kalu had enrolled as a stu-dent in the Abia State owned uni-versity while he was governor ofthe state. His dual role as studentand Visitor of the university raiseda lot of moral and ethical ques-tions. Still, the university foundhim worthy in academics and char-acter to award him a degree.

For the eight years that he wasgovernor of the state, Orji Kalu wasin company of Theodore Orji whoserved as his Chief of Staff. It wasOrji Kalu that played the godfatherand made sure Theodore suc-ceeded him in office.

But as has become customary inNigeria, things have fallen apartand the falcon and the falconerhave gone separate ways and areno longer in harmony. These dis-agreements, which normallycentere on the sharing of statebooty, have in this case degener-ated to an invasion of the ivorytowers of our university system.

How did Orji Kalu gain admis-sion to the university? Did he do itthrough his executive powers asthe governor of the state and thevisitor of the university? The uni-versity itself says this is what hap-pened. And when did the univer-sity discover that its own admis-sion regulations were being vio-

Abia State University degreeslated by its governor? Just thismonth, six years after the man leftoffice.

A university as an institution ofacademic excellence is by defini-tion an autonomous institution. It

is deemed to be free of the meddle-some hands of politicians. Sadly,the unfolding drama in Abia ne-gates all the noble ideals on whicha university is supposed to befounded.

Governor Theodore Orji may bebeating his chest, boasting that hehas done a mortal blow to hisformer boss and estranged politi-cal godfather. We think he iswrong. Orji Kalu was rusticatedfrom the University of Maiduguriand became tremendously rich be-fore he became governor of Abia.How he made his billions is a mys-tery. To him, a university degree ismore of an ego than anything else.

The degree certificate of the AbiaState University however means alot to its students – former andpresent – who regard it as theirveritable meal ticket. What the twosquabbling politicians have doneis to cast serious doubts on thequality of certificates dished out bythis university.

Employers of labour looking forhigh quality manpower will hence-forth regard them as coming froma low breed institution. This is in-deed sad.

The authorities at ABSU haveclearly confirmed by their actionsthat they are closer to mercantileactivities than academics. Sad as itis, this is indicative of a deeper rotin our university system generally.The actions of the the two states-men in Abia have only brought tothe fore the ugly reality on theground. Something must be doneto save the situation.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Editor-in-Chief/CEO:

OUR TEAM

Tom Chiahemen

Managing Editor: Donald Andoor

Editor: Patrick O. Ogar

Assoc. Editor (Politics) Henry Omunu

Assoc. Editor (Business) Ewache Ajefu

Asst. Editors: Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Chuks Ehirim

Ag. News Editor: Chris Richards

Production Editor: Gabriel Gwajime

Head, Business Dev’t: Tim Tuse

Adverts Manager: Musa Aliyu

Lagos Bureau: Adeyemi Adebanjo

Calabar: Emma Obi

The best way to protect the nationalinterest and forge National Accord

is to protect the interest of the Nigerianpeople, especially the

weak and the voiceless in society, moreso in our system that

officially endorses the policy of majorityand minority groups.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

letters to the editor

Emeritus Professor and prolificwriter, Chinua Achebe is dead.However, he is deceased only in the

physical, his spirit and literary works liveforever. Every English student from 1958-80 either read or watched the film “ThingsFall Apart!” This novel was translatedinto more than 50 languages across theglobe, and perhaps, the firmament. Hisother literary works are legion andubiquitous in schools and public libraries,including my village – Korinya.

The man nevertheless had hi frailties andfoibles. His latest book, ‘There was acountry,’ has a blaze of controversies. But

Things have further fallen apart!Achebe wrote what he saw and knew at thetime. Moreover, he never expected tocandour. He was poignantly pugnacious incalling a spade a spade.

Several times the ‘Nobel Prize’ eluded him,but the prize is meant for any literary giantof Achebe’s status. It’s just like picking Messiahead of Ronaldo, or picking any lecturer tobe the VC. Please let’s not lampoon the dead,but rather canonise him. Achebe madeNigeria proud. His death is capable of wipinga whole chapter from the bible.

Adieu, our colossus and icon, oga Achebe.Jimmy Texas Ajim,NNPC Towers, Abuja. Late Prof. Chinua Achebe

8 Monday, April 1, 2013, National Accord

2013 Budget:President must avoidcrisis with NASS – Hon. Ogunola

You are a member of ACNwhich is in the process ofmerging with other parties andthis has generated a lot ofcontroversies in the country.Do you think this merger willsucceed?

We are trying to put our headstogether and ensure that this mergeris firmly put in place before the 2015election. We believe strongly that themerger is what can do Nigeria proudor good because right now we aremore or less practicing a one partysystem of government. What wereally want and need is a strongopposition party that can challengethe ruling party and become analternative government after a keenlyand credible conducted election. Istrongly believe therefore that ourmerger plan will succeed and liberateNigerians from the savage grip of anincompetent PDP government at thefederal level.

The attempt for this similarmerger was tried in 2011 withANPP and CPC but it did notwork. How can you convinceNigerians that this time aroundthe plan will succeed?

Well, what I can tell you is thatfirstly, we have put our differencesaside after recognising that the majorproblem facing Nigeria is lack of goodleadership which the PDPgovernment has not been able tosolve for the for the past thirteenyears. For example the socio-economic situation in the countrycontinues to deteriorate with everypassing year while the politicalconditions for democracy to thriveis getting more worse under theleadership of PDP.

Secondly, we have changed ourplans and tactics from what wasobtained in 2011. For example in2011 every party involved then hadpicked their presidential candidatesbefore the talks on alliance issuestarted.

But the situation is now differentbecause we have learnt our lessonsand have started the merger talks farahead of the 2015 election. This isnecessary for us so that we can be ina position to resolve all technicalissues before the campaign for 2015election starts by next year.

Therefore we are not going to fail thistime around as the basic foundationfor its success has been solidly put inplace. As a matter of fact we have putindividual considerations aside andare pursuing what we believe is theparamount interest to averageNigerians.

Most Nigerians want change,but the fear is that the variousparties coming together toform this merger have differentideologies and manifestoes thatcould make the merger difficultto implement when it comesinto power. How is this issuegoing to be tackled?

It is often said that two heads arebetter than one, and the more headsto reason together could be the bestoption. Every party, at the moment,has its own different manifestoes, butwhat I can tell Nigerians is that thedifferent party m will be subsumed inthe amended manifestoes of the newmerger party in order toaccommodate the interest of thevarious party members. Do notforget that manifestoes are preparedby the people who believe in similarideologies. It, therefore, means thatall members of the various partiescoming together under the newmerger party would have agreed toabide with its manifestoes.Consequently, what many people arenow regarding to be our majordifferences will soon be resolved topave way for a big opposition partyin the country’s history that willliberate and then move Nigeriaforward.

Do you think the rulingparty, PDP, will fold its armsand allow this merger tosucceed with this allegationthat it has already started usingits power to stop INEC from

registering the merger party?Do not forget that we are in a

democracy and therefore notpossible for the government to stoppeople from forming a party of theirchoice. Anybody can come up withany name to register a party as longas the rules and guidelines of INECare met. Secondly, we haveintellectuals in our party andpowerful leaders who can thwart anymeasure adopted by PDP to obstructthe success of this merger. I knowthat PDP is jittery and will try all kindof antics to frustrate us, but I canassure Nigerians that we are preparedfor them this time around to beatthem at their own games. Reasonableand well-meaning Nigerians haveseen the commitment and sincerityof our patriotic leaders towards thesuccess of this merger party and theyare embracing the project. So thereis no fear about what some few leaders

of PDP will embark upon to frustrateus.

The National Assembly actedpromptly and passed the 2013budget before the New Year, butup till now there seems to becontroversies between thePresidency and the NationalAssembly even after Mr.President has signed the budgetinto law. Can you tell us what isreally the situation?

It is true that the controversiesover the 2013 budget is yet to be overas the NASS, has refused to makebudgetary provision (SEC) until Ms.Aruma Oteh is removed from office,a demand which Mr. President hasignored. You will recall that on 27/03/2013 the House ofRepresentatives stood its ground onthe issue and has warned Mr.President in a letter sent to him dated27/03/2013 on the consequences ofignoring its decision on the matter.The position is very simple: ThePresident has to choose betweenretaining Ms. Oteh in office andrisking constitutional crisis with theNational Assembly. in my personalopinion, Mr. President cannot affordto confront the National Assembly onaccount of an individual governmentofficial who is considered to beunqualified for the possition she isoccupying.

Hon. Tunde Ogunola, an ACN member representingAdo/Ofa Federal Constituency of Ogun Staterecently interacted with journalists at the NationalAssembly on the merger and other issues of nationalinterest. NATIONAL ACCORD reporter GABRIELAGBONIKA was there and filed excerpst of theinterview.

Hon. Tunde Ogunola

It is true that the controversies over the 2013budget is yet to be over as the NASS, has refusedto make budgetary provision (SEC) until Ms.Aruma Oteh is removed from office, a demandwhich Mr. President has ignored.

9National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

controversy10 National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

I’m richer than Bill Gates – Thelma Udeh

Thelma Udeh, 28, was whatyou could call mothersuperior in the marine

world. She was mammy water’s(mermaid’s) daughter and whileher reign in the marine worldlasted, she had fun, but left inher trail, a tale of havoc andunbearable circumstances forher parents and those she camein contact with.

I came in contact with Thelma perchance as this was not a scheduledinterview whatsoever. We boardedthe same bus enroute Owerri andsomehow, we had a misunderstandingover who sits where. In the course ofour argument, she sighed and said, “ifit were the days I was in the otherworld, I will show you the stuff ammade of, people don’t dare me and getaway with it”.

At this point, I chose to make peacewith her, and allowed her have herway. As the journey progressed, webecame friends and I asked her whatshe meant by the statement she madein anger. “I came to the world fromthe waters…”. We there and thenagreed to continue the discussion byway of an interview on the groundsthat I would not publish herphotograph.

Thelma, as her parent’s daughter,at the end of the day, wrecked herparents, so much so that theycouldn’t feed their other children. Shelives in Lagos and has a daughterwhom he had for a man she was sentfrom the marine world to kill, but shefell in love with the man. She howeverdid not get married to the man andshe took custody of the now 10 year-old daughter.

In this unedited interview withnational accord Chief Correspondentin Enugu, STAN OKEKE,, Thelma tellsher story and how she was “disabled”by the General Overseer ofResurrection Praise Chapel, Prophet(Dr) Samson Benjamin. Her encounterwith the prophet, ended her rein ofterror and Thelma has since turned anew leaf, living like a normal humanbeing.

MISSION TO KILL“I was in the marine world for five

years before I came down to earth. Iwas born there and I had a twinbrother there before I came here. Wehad a mission to come and kill then.There was a lady I was sent to kill andthe only way I could get to the ladywas by my being someone related toher in blood.

When she was about to bear her firstchild, I had to enter the child and thatwas how I came to the world. When Icame, I found it very difficult to killher because her spirit was very strongand moreover, she didn’t do anythingwrong. It’s only people who offendme or offend my spirit that are veryeasy for me to get. That was why I saidyou were very lucky when you lookedfor my trouble.

When I tried all I could and Icouldn’t get her in any way possible,

that is to kill her, I decided to see if Icould kill her in a natural form. I madeher hypertensive. I did so manyhorrible things unexpected of what afirst daughter should do to hermother. All the same, by the grace ofGod, she passed through them. Itcontinued, until a friend took me toResurrection Chapel.”

SPELL CASTER“Before then, I had encountered

Prophet Benjamin in a dream, longbefore I even met him. I was in schoolthen and all he just told me in thedream was that “I’m waiting for you”.I just said to myself, who is this one?So, when I went to the church the firstday, I met him I said, I have seen thisface before, but I was just trying torecollect. When I entered, I cast aspell on the congregation and almosthalf of them fell asleep. One day, Icame again, and the prophetprophesied that he saw the Queen ofthe Coast standing at the gate, sayingthat she’s waiting for her daughter,that he was going to arrange aprogramme.

When he did that, the first day, Iwasn’t there. Then my friendthreatened that if I didn’t come thesecond day, that I should forget beingher friend, and I liked her so much.And already, the Queen of the Coastwas after her because they hadalready seen that I’ll get my salvation

chance people.”

DEALING WITH HOODLUMS“I boarded a bus going towards

Alakija, Lagos. Most of thepassengers, on boarding the bus,became hypnotized, but due to thefact that I wasn’t like an ordinaryhuman being, their charm did notaffect me. So, when they saw that theircharm did not affect me, Icommanded them to returneverything they collected from thepassengers, and the man turned andlooked at me.

Immediately he did that, he startedbegging, that I should please sparetheir lives, that they would returneverything. They now returnedeverything and I now told the manthat as soon as they turn, and theyget to Abula-Ado, that he should giveone excuse and drop at the bus stop,that if he followed them after that busstop, that he’s the one that knowswhat will happen.

As soon as the man dropped, aDangote truck just came and crushedthem. I’ve also come in contact withOgboni people. I was going to visit afriend when a Prado jeep stopped andthe man asked me to hop in. He saidthat he was going to the beach, that Ishould accompany him, since Iwasn’t in a hurry. I said ok, and whenwe got to the beach, we played and hesaid let’s go and eat. We went acrossSeme and we got to a building that usediamond as its signal.

He thought I was a normal humanbeing, because as a normal humanbeing, once you enter the gate, that’sthe end of the person. So, I enteredthe gate and got into their receptionarea. They don’t seat on chairs, buton the floor and fold their legs. Ifolded my legs as if I had been therebefore. They served me and I ate.Later, one of them came out and sawme and asked who brought me here.

The man who brought me said thathe was the person, and they called theman aside and said to him, “Are youmad? You went and brought ourmother’s daughter here, do you wantcalamity to befall us?” They orderedhim to go and drop me, that they didnot want any trouble. He had to takeme back to where he picked me.”

NO GOING BACK“When I was delivered, I was brought

to the altar and Holy Water was pouredon me and I started screaming. Theprophet now said, let me set her free.When he saw my face, he said that thisis the person I have been looking for..He then asked me whether I would liketo go back to the marine world. I had totell him the truth, that I prefer to goback because Life here is meaningless,but life there is fun.

You have everything you want. Ireally gave in out of curiosity and lifeseems better now. The Queen of theCoast comes at times to scold me. Evenmy twin brother there comes at times.They have been begging me to comeback but my mind is made up, andthere’s no going back.”

From STAN OKEKE, Enugu the name I was given in the marineworld.

That was when the prophet calledme and asked me my name.Fortunately, I gave him the name mymother gave me on earth. And thatwas how they lost me in the marineworld. After that, life really becamevery difficult. I felt inferior, peoplearound me never wanted to associatewith me. Those who did, were forcedto go for deliverance. There was alsoa man I was supposed to take as aconsolation price, after I couldn’t killmy mother, only for me to get closeto the man. I eventually had a babyfor him.”

RICHER THAN BILL GATES“If not for God, and the Man of God,

I don’t know where I would be rightnow. The man I had the baby for hasbeen taking care of me and my baby.Her took care of me through thepregnancy too. When I was overthere… in fact, I used to tell my friendsthat life on earth here’s rubbish.There in the spirit world, it’s just likea city on its own. The roads are neat,you have everything, our plates weremade of gold, and we had silverspoons, ivory, things were verybeautiful.

I told my friend that should BillGates gather all his money together,that it’s not up to what we have therein the water. She thought I was lying,

At this point, I chose to make peace withher, and allowed her have her way. Asthe journey progressed, we becamefriends and I asked her what she meantby the statement she made in anger. "Icame to the world from the waters…".We there and then agreed to continuethe discussion by way of an interview onthe grounds that I would not publishher photograph.

through her. So, I was doingeverything I could to protect her.

When I went to her that second day,that was when the prayers were so hotand anointing was so much. So, Ifeell.I couldn’t recollect what washappening in the physical but in thespiritual, I was being put through abright light and somebody wasbeckoning on me to come, that Iwould find much more peace and lovein the light.”

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY“But the Queen Mother was

dragging me to the other side, verydark pit. She said that I shouldn’tmind them, but that the rest of thebattle lay with me. She said that whenthey ask me my name, I should givethem the name Beatrice, which was

until a friend of mine that was alsodelivered from this same thing, cameand confirmed it.”

CHANGELING“We swim around in water. Then,

when I get in contact with water whileon earth, I start growing my fish tailback. I also used to have fish scaleson my leg because that was the mostpotent weapon I used to attractpeople to me because they said I havefine legs, even up to my body. I’malways on earth. I usually go back towater when they need me, I was notpermanently living in water. I’m nota wicked spirit actually, it’s only whenyou offend me. I can only rememberone accident that I practicallycaused. There was this group of boysin the bus, they were like these one

11National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

Justice Archibong: How AGF,CJN deceived Mr. President

When on 20th February, 2013,the Chief Justice of Nigeriaand Chairman, National

Judicial Council, Justice AlomaMariam Mukhtar forcefully releasedher sledge hammer against Hon.Justice Charles Archibong of theFederal High Court, Ikoyi-Lagosthrough a memo reference NJC/F.3/FHC.22/223, over an alleged abuse ofjudicial process by the latter, little didshe know that she was giving openinvitation to reptiles for stock-pilingant-ridden woods in her domain.

The truth of the matter is that theEconomic and Financial CrimesCommission, EFCC had on 21st December,2009, filed a twenty-eight count chargeagainst the former Managing Director of theerstwhile Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr.Erastus Akingbola, at the Federal High Court,Lagos Judicial Division with an amendedtwenty-two count charge which was dated26th January, 2010.

However, due to the accused person’sabsence from the court, he could not bearraigned on the twenty-two count chargewhich necessitated the issuance of a warrantof arrest on 14 th February, 2010 by aMagistrate Court in Lagos that was noteffectively pursued with several otheramended charges also preferred against theaccused at the Lagos High Court.

To seek for redress based on hisfundamental human right and as enshrinedin the constitution, the accused instituted asuit at the Federal High Court via suit no.FHC/L/CS/520/2011 in a civil action for theenforcement of his fundamental right, whichwas then assigned to Hon. Justice CharlesArchibong, who allegedly dismissed thecharges against the accused without takinghis plea as well as purportedly issuing benchwarrant on some chieftains of Nigeria’s rulingPeoples’ Democratic Party, PDP forcontempt.

Hon. Justice Archibong who has hadseveral judgments upheld by the Court ofAppeal as well as judgments reversed by theCourt but later upheld by the Supreme Courtstated that the prosecuting team got, won orsucceeded with every single applicationbrought before him in the said suit and wasnot aware of any appeal pending, filed by theAttorney-General of the federation andminister of Justice against his disbanding ofthe prosecution team as no complaint of highhandedness was made against him by theAGF.

The Judge who denied ever calling a seniorcounsel indolent, incompetent and abuse ofprocess, stated clearly that he deemed theapplication for stay of proceedings made byMr. J.B. Daudu, SAN ill-conceived andaccordingly dismissed it, noting that whetherDr. Akingbola stole over Three hundred andforty billion naira and Ten billion poundsrespectively from anywhere still remainedallegations which the defense team keptchallenging as to competence, adding that thecase never got past amendment of charges asthere was no arraignment before him and noevidence was led.

As regards the alleged invitation of fewJournalists into his Chambers, availing themof his handwritten note and told them thenames of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria hewas referring to as being incompetent,

By CHRIS DNK RICHARDS

indolent and drain on public purse, theembattled Judge who argued that he is notthe Head of Court as to grant any pressinterview, stated that one of the petitioners,Chief Olajide Ajana who claimed herepresented members of National ExecutiveCommittee of the Peoples’ Democratic Partywho alleged to be serial, contemnors in thesuits in question in which they featuredequally disobeyed all Court orders made inthe suit before him as well as sister casesbefore his learned colleagues of the FederalHigh Court.

Archibong who like every other humancould err, should not be seen as the onefrustrating the law against corruption and hisjudicial track records depict that he has noagenda against either the Peoples’DemocraticParty or any other party or persons but as aJudge must remain the master of his Courtthat deserves some respect and should notbe rudely scandalized or censored ormanipulated like a stooge.

Though the Hon. Justice I. Hwande, (ChiefJudge of Benue State)-led 3-man committeewhich included Hon. Justice O. O. Oladipade,Chief Judge of Ogun State and Mrs. RakyiyaS. Ibrahim, on the trial of Justice CharlesArchibong constituted at the 60th Meeting ofthe National Judicial Council on 17th October,2012 after its findings through a memoreference NJC/6/3/15/1/10 of 18 th

December, 2012 to the CJN, Hon. JusticeAloma M. Mukhtar stated thus: ‘’…Fromthe totality of evidence before theCommittee as gleaned from therecords, we are satisfied that theJudge mis-conducted himself in hisutterances and conduct of casesbefore him. We therefore recommendthat he should be warned seriously tohenceforth conduct himself withdecorum and to update his knowledgeof the law. In addition, his Head ofCourt should closely monitor him andascertain the type of cases he assignshim’’.

Since there was no financial scam againstthe embattled Justice Archibong from theaccused, one wonders whether his trial wasfairly handled. Again, the formation of themembers of his trial committee raises

another big question over whether or not DueProcess the present day government ispreaching was actually followed without bias.Did this committee so constituted then, knowthat he who kills with a sword will equally bevisited by the same measure?

In a petition to President GoodluckJonathan dated 25thFebruary, 2013 whichwas titled ‘’THE PRESIDENT SHOULDRESCIND/WITHDRAW ACCEPTANCE/APPROVAL OF THE NATIONALJUDICIAL COUNCIL’SRECOMMENDATION THAT I BECOMPULSORILY RETIRED AS A JUDGEOF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT’’, JusticeArchibong wants the president to disregardthe kangaroo judgment meted on him forexercising his discretion to terminateproceedings on the aforesaid ErastusAkingbola case due to lack of diligentprosecution for a case that had lasted overthree years in court without any head or tail.

One had expected that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister ofJustice who refused to institute fresh criminalproceedings against Akingbola for reasonsbest known to him and, did not appeal theruling of Justice Archibong, should have beenin a better position to brief Mr. Presidentbetter and appropriately as the Chief LawOfficer of the country, whom all theproceedings of the said case were forwardedto but instead decided to misinform as wellas misguide the President.

The investigating committee’s decision toresolve issues and make recommendationswithout any interview or hearing of theaccused speak volumes and lived much to bedesired most especially as it affects the manwhose career was at stake. Thank God therewas no involvement of corruption issues.

Similarly, it is regrettable that the CJN asa mother saw no need to grant audience to aJudge of over ten years standing who hasserved in several Divisions of the FederalHigh Court, and whom the PerformanceEvaluation and Monitoring Committee of thesame NJC had in last month (February) 2013,given a commendation in writing for hisexemplary judicial disposition.

The CJN did not only deny Justice CharlesArchibong the right of fair hearing but she

obviously subverted the whole process andlied to the President that the embattled Judgeappeared before her Committee, and washeard. Every member of the NJC includingthe Attorney-General knew that the Judgein question was not granted fair hearing ashe was in far away Malta, Greece on officialassignment as the time his case was beingdecided.

For jettisoning the recommendation of theinvestigating committee which was‘warning’ and unilaterally superimposedthe ultimate draconian sanction ofcompulsory ‘retirement’ is to say the leastinhuman and dastardly.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria andChairman of the National Judicial Council,Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar had on 20th

February, 2013 via memo reference no.NJC/F.3/FHC.22/223 to Hon. JusticeCharles Archibong through Hon. JusticeIbrahim N. Auta titled RE:INVESTIGATION BY THENATIONAL COUNCIL; RE:COMPLAINT AGAINST THECONDUCT OF MR. JUSTICECHARLES EFANGA ARCHIBONG INCASE NO. FHC/L/CS/443C/2009-FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA VDR. ERASTUS B. O. AKINGBOLAAND THE INAPPROPRIATEPRONOUNCEMENT IN RELATIONTO FIVE SENIOR ADVOCATES OFNIGERIA; AND RE: COMPLAINT OFABUSE OF JUDICIAL PROCESSAGAINST JUSTICE C. EARCHIBONGT OF THE FEDERALHIGH COURT, LAGOS; LETTER OFSUSPENSION FROM OFFICE

This necessitated another memo dated25 thFebruary, 2013 from Hon. JusticeIbrahim Auta, the immediate boss of JusticeCharles Archibong on the same subject-matter to the hunted Judge. The question ishow safe and independent is Nigeria’sjudicial system? Has the sector performed itsstatutory and constitutional functionswithout any undue interference from the so-called power-brokers? How free is Nigeria’sjudicial system? Well, let’s keep our fingerscrossed as events unfold on the JusticeCharles Archibong ill-fated coup d’état.

President Goodluck Jonathan Aloma-Mariam-Mukhtar, CJNMohammed Bello Adoke Minister ofJustice

health12 Monday, April 1, 2013,National Accord

What’s new in yourDirectorate?

The new thing about us nowis that we are a full-fledgeddirectorate in NAFDAC,

known as Pharmacovigilance PostMarket Surveillance Directorate,as opposed to being a unit in theoffice of the Director-Generalpreviously, known asPharmcovigilance Food and DrugInformation Centre. So we arenow an enlarged directorate,having responsibility forpharmacovigilance, food anddrug information, post marketsurveillance, which means, moreof the activity of the people whoown the products in the marketplace, we are working with themto ensure the safety and quality ofthese products.

Now, a lot of people haveraised questions aboutNAFDAC registering aproduct, giving it a numberand of course as they go intothe market, they discoverthat it doesn’t do what itpromises to do, I believepost-market surveillancecovers part of that, but elsedoes it do?

Post market surveillance isactually the new thing now interms of controlling products inthe market. Understandably,when somebody wants to registera product, they would bring theirbest foot forward. In other words,you are seeing the productmeeting up with the standards –how it should be. What happensafter that? Post marketsurveillance is that you arecontinuously looking at thisproduct to ensure that they arestill maintaining registrationstandard that was used to registerthe product, and you are alsoworking with the owners of theproducts to know when there areproducts that are not coming fromthem. You know that when youhave a product that is popular,people use them because they aregood, they are effective, you seeother people going to bringcounterfeit products of thoseitems and have them in themarket, and the consumer has noway of knowing that this is not thevery product that was registered.So, post market surveillance ismonitoring the genuine productsthat are in the market to ensurethat they still maintain theregistration standard, and at thesame time also checkingeverything in the market to ensurethat what you are seeing isactually what it is – that it is not afake, counterfeit or sub-standardproduct. So that is what, in effect,post market surveillance is allabout. It is the continuousmonitoring of products, post-registration, and ensuring thatthey meet up with standard andthat you don’t have counterfeit,fake or sub-standard productsand at the same time working with

Pharmacist Mrs. Adeline Osakwe

How NAFDAC checkmates adverse drugreaction with PRASCOR – Mrs. Osakwe

PHARMACIST MRS. ADELINE OSAKWE is the Acting Director, Pharmacovigilance/Post Market Surveillance Directorate at NAFDAC. Ina chat with Editor-in-Chief, TOM CHIAHEMEN, she explains how NAFDAC uses text messaging to checkmate Adverse Drug Reactionand Counterfeit medicines.

the owners of the products to getinformation from them on whattheir experience with the productis, because some of the productsare coming from multi-nationalcompanies and you know that theexperience in Nigeria may not bethe experience in, for instance, theUS, Europe or even in otherAfrican countries. So the ownersof the products now have aresponsibility to collateinformation on these products inuse in those various places andbring them up in the form ofreport, which we call the PeriodicSafety Audit Report (PSAR).They send these reports to us andwe receive and evaluate them tosee how the product is affectingpeople in other places and seewhether Nigeria is the same thingor there are differences in theNigerian population.

So where do I come in as aconsumer of NAFDACregulated products?

As a consumer of NAFDACregulated products, you have lotof responsibilities. Number oneis that the consumer is the bestperson to detect when somethingis wrong – whether in safety orquality. Number two is that if youdetect and you don’t let it beknown – if you don’tcommunicate, if you don’t report,it stays with you, nothing can bedone about it to help yourself andthen to help other people. Wenoticed that the consumers beforenow have not actively participatedin the reporting process, so webrought up a system that we callPRASCOR, which meansPharmacovigilance Rapid AlertSystem for Consumer Reporting.

Consumer reporting is notsomething peculiar to Nigeria.Globally, that is the in-thing now,especially in developing countrieslike Nigeria where before nowconsumers have not shownenough interest or they are notfully aware of what theirresponsibility is. So this is our wayof encouraging the consumer tocontribute participate actively inthe process. And how do they dothis? It is simple: for now, wehave three networks. MTN,Globacom and Etisalat. They haveone short code, which is: 20543.Once a consumer experiences anyuntoward effect while using amedicine – it could be rashes, itcould be that they are feeling dizzyor anything they are feeling thatis different from what they wereexperiencing before taking themedicine, they should just send amessage to this code: 20543,using any of the three networksthat I have mentioned. All theyneed to say is “I took medicine –e.g paracetamol and am havingache in my back or pain in mystomach,” that’s all. Immediatelythey do this, there would be anautomatic response that will tellthem, “we have received yourmessage, somebody will get intouch with you” and within aspace of 10 or 15 minutes, thisinformation gets to our system byway of e-mail, we will get theperson’s number, the number thatthe person (complainant) used tosend the message and somebodyfrom our office will contact thatperson within a space of 24 hours.

I say 24 hours because if it isoutside working hours, it will takesome time to get to the person. So

within a space of 24 hours, we willget to the person and we will findout in detail what exactly the issueis. If it is a very serious reactionwe refer them to the nearesthospital for treatment, becausewe do not undertake healthmanagement – in other words, wedo not treat the person – if it is aserious reaction, we will tell theperson “go to hospital or clinicnearest to you to get yourselftreated.” Then we will take it up– with the information the personhas given – by trying to get thedetails of the product so that wecan ascertain whether it isactually a genuine product or not,and if it is a genuine product, wewill now do our evaluation toknow what possible reasons couldthey be for the person to react tothat particular medicine orproduct that he has mentioned.

We do the assessment,evaluation and we tell or give theperson directions on what to doso that he does not suffer moreserious reaction. This way, thatconsumer has activelyparticipated in giving thisinformation that is essential toprevent serious reaction as far asthe person is concerned, and moreimportantly, to prevent futureoccurrence of that particularreaction.

When did NAFDAC startthis PRASCOR and haveconsumers responded tothis PRASCOR? How manycases of complaints hasNAFDAC received so far?

The PRASCOR was started inSeptember 2012. We are now inMarch 2013 and so far we havereceived more than 5,000 alerts.

Some of them are safety issues -in other words, I have used thisproduct and this is the reaction Iam getting from it. The majorityof the alerts are on quality issue.Somebody telling you that I usedto use this product, “I havediscovered that what is there nowis not the same thing.” It is nowour (NAFDAC) responsibility tofind out which product they aretalking about, which version isregistered, and if there is adifference in terms of oh! theyhave changed the packaging orthe look of this product, we willknow. If it has not been changedthat really, this is somethingunusual and we will take theproduct from the market. We willtake it to the laboratory andanalyze and will find out what isdifferent there and then we willcontact the owner of the product,the person that has registeredthat product to find out howmuch they about this new versionthat is in the market and we willtake it from there. Quite honestly,this system is a very good meansof checkmating counterfeitersbecause no matter where theperson is and no matter howremote the area where thisproduct is, any person that has amobile phone can be a reporter.You don’t need to be in the city toreport; any where you are, usingany of these three networks, andwe are working towards ensuringthat all the mobile networksavailable in the countryparticipate in this because this isthe most effective way of gettingthe consumers wherever they areexpose to those products thatmay not be genuine for them todo a report on it. This is to ensurethat people are not exposed tofake and counterfeit products andalso that even when they takegenuine products and they havereaction, i t is followed upimmediately to ensure that theydo not suffer problems as a resultof this.

How soon are you going toexpand this to cover all theCellular Service Providers inNigeria?

It’s work in progress, we havegotten these three and we arelooking at the other ones to seehow they can come in, this is anopportunity for the providerseven to do Social CorporateResponsibility, because it costs usmoney, I said that the consumerdoes not pay anything, but it costsmoney for us to do this, so we arelooking at all these Providers tosee how they can come in, eitherfully sponsoring this orsubsidizing it so that we can reacheverybody and everybody canreach us, so we are working on itas at now, and we call oneverybody even people like you, ifyou know how you reach theseproviders to make themparticipate in this, we will be morethan happy to take a lead.

special interviewNational Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

Next Benue Governor must bebest candidate from MINDAor Zone ‘C’ – Engr Atume

I ’d like you to draw adistinction between theCouncil for the Regulation

of Engineering in Nigeria(COREN) and the Nigerian Soci-ety of Engineers (NSE). Whatspecific roles and responsibili-ties does each of the two bodiesplay, as far as the practice ofengineering profession in Nige-ria is concerned?

COREN is a parastatal of theFederal Ministry of Works. It’s agovernment body, established by lawto regulate the practice of engineeringin Nigeria. It was established in 1970by Decree No. 55 of 1970. This wasamended in 1992 by Decree No. 27and now it is an Act of the parliamentCAP E11 of 2004.

COREN has three major mandates:The first is Accreditation of Engineer-ing programmes in universities, poly-technics ad technical colleges to en-sure that these institutions have mini-mum facilities in terms of infrastruc-ture, classrooms, laboratories andmanpower to be able to produce en-gineering personnel that will be suit-able for the industry.

The second major mandate ofCOREN is to ensure that afterproducing these engineeringpersonnel from the universities,polytechnics ad technical colleges,they are registered, legally, topractice the engineering professionafter practicing for certain number ofyears – normally a minimum of fouryears under a qualified and registeredengineer.

The third major mandate ofCOREN is to regulate the practice ofengineering and control it. After theengineering personnel have beenregistered, it is expected that theywill be on their own practicing theengineering profession, and CORENmonitors to ensure that only thosewho are qualified are allowed topractice the profession. This is donethrough a programme calledEngineering Regulation Monitoring(ERM), and the ERM has beenestablished in over 30 inspectorates– 30 divisions across the nooks andcrannies of Nigeria.

Back to your initial question –what is the difference between COREN

and NSE? The Nigerian Society ofEngineers is an Association ofengineering professionals. It is notestablished by law while COREN isestablished by law. COREN has fiveRegistrars: The Registrar ofProfessional Engineers (that’s theNSE); the Registrar of EngineeringTechnicians; the Registrar ofEngineering Craftsmen; and theRegistrar of Engineering Consultants.So, all professional engineers, alltechnologists, all technicians, allcraftsmen and all consultants, mustregister with COREN to practicelegally in Nigeria.

I can liken it to the medicalprofession where you have theNigerian Medical Association (NMA)which is the equivalence of NSE andthe Nigerian Medical Council (NMC),which is the equivalence of COREN.In Law, you have the Nigerian BarAssociation (NBA), which is theequivalence of NSE and the LegalCouncil, which is the equivalence ofCOREN. So, COREN is a statutorybody of government; it’s a regulatorybody for engineering programmes.

The Associations – the NSE, theNational Association ofTechnologists in Engineering (NATE),the Nigerian Institute of Techniciansin Engineering (NITE), and theNigerian Association of EngineeringCraftsmen (NAEC), all promote theengineering profession in theirvarious cadres.

How successful has CORENbeen able to meet its mandatesince inception? What majorachievements of the Councilcan you point out?

First, the accreditation of engi-neering programmes: COREN hastaken accreditation to a level that itis recognised worldwide as an ac-creditation body of engineering pro-grams. In Nigeria here, no universityor polytechnic runs engineeringprogrammes without the approval ofCOREN. Recently, we had a problemwith the University of Abuja, wherethey admitted students, and theywere running the programme withoutCOREN accreditation. We made ef-forts to ensure that they had the mini-mum facilities to run the programme.

That failed and we had to advise thatthe programme should not run. Sotoday, there’re a lot of problems. Thepoint I am making here is that it isonly when COREN says that you haveminimum facilities that you can runengineering programmes. So, wemade tremendous achievements inthat line.

We have also been able to registerso many engineers and engineeringpersonnel to practice engineeringprogrammes legally in Nigeria. That’sanother big achievement.

COREN also ensures that youcannot carry out engineeringconsultancy at the federal levelwithout COREN registration. So,today, all Ministries and Agencies ofgovernment are expected to ensurethat those who do engineeringconsultancy are registered byCOREN. The essence is that you aredealing with people that areaccountable; you are dealing withpeople that have ethics in their ownprofession. That is the greatestachievement of COREN.

Then, in terms of educationgenerally, we’ve taken engineeringeducation to a very high level,sensitizing the need to produce asmany engineering personnel aspossible to run the infrastructure inthis country. Today, if government istalking about 20,000 megawatts ofelectricity, the requirement is thatNigeria must produce a minimum of20,000 engineering personnel first inthe electrical sub-sector. Water sub-sector requires about 500,000engineers. So, it’s a lot of work to bedone, and COREN recently carriedout a survey of 20 technical collegesand this was brought to the fore. Thesituation is really very bad. We areadvocating that governments at alllevels- the states and the federal,must revive and establish newtechnical colleges for us to be able toget enough personnel to man theinfrastructures government isputting in place. For instance, theNIPP project cannot be sustainableunless we produce enoughtechnicians and craftsmen in thecorrect quality and quantity, to runthese organizations.

As Director of the Benue State Rural Development Agency and later, Commissioner for Works,ENGR FELIX ATUME became a household name in discussions bordering on rural roads, bridgesand electrification. After a successful six-year tenure as Registrar of the Council for the Regulationof Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Atume spoke to Editor-in-Chief, TOM CHIAHEMEN, on his stew-ardship and what next after COREN.

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Engr Atume

14special interview

Monday, April 1, 2013, National Accord

So, in a nutshell, COREN has madetremendous achievements in terms ofaccrediting engineeringprogrammes, ensuring that only thequalified people are allowed topractice the profession, and in thecourse of regulating the profession,we also ensure that there aresanctions. We place serious sanctionson engineering personnel that fall foulof the ethics of the profession.

How many engineeringpersonnel do you have on thecurrent register of COREN?

About 25,000 registeredengineers who are legally qualified topractice the engineering profession.

One of the serious challengesthe nation has faced in recentyears is the incessant collapseof buildings, leading to loss oflives. What practical steps hasCOREN taken to stem this?

Thank you very much. Any time Ihave the opportunity to discuss theissue of collapse of buildings inNigeria, I first express mycondolences and sympathy to thosewho have been affected in thecollapse of building structures. It isquite painful that while othercountries are putting up structures of100 storey buildings safely, usingtheir engineers, we are talking,sometimes, of the collapse of just onestory building. It is very sad. Thewhole issue is the involvement ofquacks in the engineering profession.That is the major cause of collapse ofbuildings in the country. People whohave no business at all in theconstruction industry are engaged toput up buildings. Let me take from thefirst principles. To procure a building,let me give you an example of just onestorey building: first, you get anArchitect who will do the spacing, thebeauty, the Architecturalrequirements – that is the client’sspecifications. After that, thesedrawings or documents are passed tothe structural Engineer, who gives thestrength of the building. After thestructural Engineer has done hisdesign, his design with the foundationrelative to existing soft soil, he thenpasses it to the Electrical andMechanical Engineers, and now wehave ICT that will provide the services– where should an airconditioner be;what are the different requirementsin terms of mechanical and electrical?Then, all these are packaged to theDevelopment Control authorities forapproval. And, in most cases, whatwe have seen is that these steps aretaken. In most cases, the Architectthat designs is registered; theEngineer that designs the structure isregistered; those from Mechanicaland Electrical Services are registeredwith COREN. When the developer getsapproval and begins to build, that’swhere the problem comes. Instead ofagain involving these professionals,they go to involve quacks, in terms ofcutting costs, and that’s where theproblem is. So, the problem of

collapse of buildings is because thequacks are involved. People who haveno business in the constructionindustry are involved in theprocurement of buildings and that’swhere you see failure. We have goneahead to the Development Controlsacross the country, and we haveinformed them that at the point ofgiving approval, an Engineerregistered with COREN should comeup to say that he is the one going tosupervise the project so that he willbe held responsible. Abuja isimplementing that quite strictly butother states of the Federation are notimplementing it. Let me use thisopportunity to call on all states of thecountry to ensure that theDevelopment Control is staffed withthe relevant professionals –Structural Engineers, ElectricalEngineers and Mechanical Engineers,etc that will approve the drawings andalso ensure that what was approvedis exactly what is put on ground incarrying out the development ofstructures.

As a regulatory body, hasCOREN taken any action likeplacing sanctions on any regis-tered engineering personnel inconnection with the collapse ofbuildings in Nigeria?

Yes, as a body, the Act establish-ing COREN says that you can onlysanction those that are registeredengineering personnel. Once the de-veloper hires quacks to go and getinvolved in the construction of build-ings, the only thing we can do is torefer such cases to the police, and wehave several cases in court, becausethose are not Engineering personnel,but for any Engineering personnelthat is involved in a building that hascollapsed, first is to be invited to theinvestigation panel of COREN, whichlooks at the steps you took in procur-ing that building, from where he istaken to the tribunal and the tribunalhas the status of a High Court and sanc-tions are meted out, which includede-registration completely, or sus-pension from the register of CORENfor a number of years. But when itbecomes that lives were involved,very strict sanctions are imposed, forinstance, his licence is withdrawncompletely and he can no longer prac-tice engineering in the country. Then,legal matters are also involved.

But let me tell you that in mostcases, engineers are involved only atthe point of design, to gettingapproval from the DevelopmentControl. In the actual execution,engineers are hardly involved. I give

an example all the time in the medicalprofession: If you are sick, you lookfor the best Doctor. It may cost youbut you look for the best Doctor.When people say: “ah, professionalsare very expensive, that is why wedidn’t use them,” if you want to spendN10million to put up a storeybuilding, why do you carry thismoney and put in the hands of aquack? If your child is sick or yourwife is sick, will you take them to ahospital that you are unsure of? In thesame vein, if you want to spendN10million to build a house, youshould ask for the best – find out whois a good Structural Engineer, a goodMechanical Engineer and a goodElectrical Engineer. You can even goto the COREN website to find outbecause you are spending money.

There’s something we are going tostart doing very soon in COREN. Weare going to carry out a regulationwhereby people who build estates, wewill not allow them to open them forhabitation until COREN tests thestructural integrity of thesebuildings. We have the law backing usto do that. In Malaysia, for example,the owners of buildings call onEngineers or the DevelopmentControl to come and test thestructural integrity of buildings aftera number of years to know that such

buildings are still safe.You have served as Registrar

of COREN for many years. Nowthat you are about rounding upyour tenure, what can you beatyour chest and point to, as yourmajor contributions to theCouncil?

First and foremost, over 60 percent of all the engineering personnelregistered by COREN since inceptionin 1970 has been during my time. Iconsider that to be a very bigachievement.

I have established 24 zonal officesacross the country. When I came inhere, they were just about five or six.

I’ve been able to build a befittingheadquarters, which is where we arehere, for COREN.

About three area offices of CORENare about to be commissioned. One isabout to be commissioned while twoothers are at different stages ofcompletion.

Above all, the Council during mytenure has taken the accreditation ofEngineering programmes to a veryhigh level that today it is placed onthe front burner of all universities.The universities and polytechnics re-alize that without COREN accredita-tion, they are running theprogrammes at a risk. We’ve done alot of sensitization in terms of Engi-neering regulation monitoring, toensure that quacks are flushed out ofthe profession and that, only thosewho are qualified are allowed to prac-tice the Engineering profession. It isa tremendous achievement in thiswise. The awareness has been createdand I think the person taking overfrom me will have a bit of an easy jobto do because the foundation has been

Continued on Page 14

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Engr Atume

We are advocating that governments at alllevels – the states and the federal, mustrevive and establish new technical collegesfor us to be able to get enough personnel toman the infrastructures government isputting in place.

‘Gov Suswam has done well in infrastructure provision’

laid, with very good infrastructure onground and vehicles to monitor En-gineering programmes across thecountry and the public is fully awareof what the roles of COREN are in thesociety.

So, after a successful tenureas Registrar of COREN, whatnext is on your mind? Are youthinking of going into partisanpolitics?

Well, I had a wonderfulopportunity to serve Benue StateGovernment. I was the Director ofBenue Rural Development Agency,during which over 22 electricityprojects were executed. I hadanother opportunity to serve as theHonourable Commissioner for Worksand built so many bridges andinfrastructure generally. The BenuePlaza Abuja here was constructedduring my time. I then had anopportunity at the federal level toserve as Executive Secretary of theNigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).I’ve served for the past six years asthe Registrar of COREN and I still hadthe opportunity to teach Engineeringas a Senior Lecturer in CivilEngineering in one of the NigerianUniversities. Now that I am going toleave as Registrar of COREN, I cansimply say I am available to be ofmore service to my state and toNigeria.

If it is the wish of my people, forexample, to participate in partisanpolitics, I am available. I have beenmaking consultations and so far I cansay that partisan politics is one of thechoices I can make. I believe stronglythat for you to give services to a largenumber of people, you require toparticipate in politics because that iswhen you have a platform to servevery many people with the resourcesof government. I think I am availableto have a go at that.

From your experience asDirector of Rural Developmentand Commissioner for Works inBenue State, what would youidentify as the major challengethat inhibits rural development

efforts in Nigeria?I thank you very much for this

question, and let me use this oppor-tunity to commend the ExecutiveGovernor of Benue State, for the won-derful projects he has carried out par-ticularly the roads projects. What weneed in Nigeria now as a priority isaccessibility. The rural areas must beaccessible. If you make the rural ar-eas accessible, you promote agricul-ture, you promote health, you pro-mote education and you promotedevelopment generally.

So, what I notice in Benue State isthat the Governor, though not an En-gineer, recognised infrastructure andhas done a good deal of work in con-structing many kilometers of ruralroads. If you go to Zone ‘A’ for ex-ample, he constructed the Amaafu-Ugba-Anyiin road; the Adikpo-Ikyoen-Jato Aka road and so manyother roads. He is constructing keyroads in Zone ‘C’, such as the Otukpo-Owukpa-Okpoga-Orokam. These arewonderful projects, and from my ex-perience as the Director of Rural De-velopment Agency and as WorksCommissioner, priority must alwaysbe given to rural areas to become ac-cessible.

Sometimes, it’s just basic lateriteroads, but once you construct themwith drainage structures, culverts andbridges, and they become accessible,you will enhance their own livingstandards, you reduce healthproblems and the educationalfacilities can be raised and can beprovided for the people with ease. So,let me commend the Benue StateGovernment under His Excellency,Governor Gabriel Suswam, Ph.D, andalso to say that my greatest challengeat that time was reaching as manycommunities as possible by theprovision of access roads, and ofcourse, electricity followed. But on apriority rating, access roads are whatyou should give to the people first.Any council ward should beaccessible; people should be able tobe reached so that the benefits ofgovernments, the dividends ofdemocracy as they call it now, canreach people better through access

roads. I have always said theMillennium Development Goals(MDGs) would be achieved faster if thepeople can be reached through theprovision of access roads andculverts. Our state is doing very welland that was my challenge.

You have declared that youwill be available for any serviceto your people after this CORENjob. If your people decide to-morrow that come 2015, youshould lead the state as Gover-nor, how would you ensure thatthe achievements of incum-bent Governor Suswam in thearea of infrastructure are notonly sustained but improvedupon?

I would rather say that I amavailable and God will chart a coursefor me. I feel that politics is a platformwe use to serve many people in recenttimes. The Governor of Benue Statehas done very well and I pray,honestly, that his efforts should besustained. Whoever God says shouldtake over from him [Suswam] shouldsustain the efforts the Governor hasmade. To me, I’d rather say that Godwill chart my course and I am readyto serve the people of Benue State, buttruly, when you want to serve, it iswhat the people want you to do thatyou do. If the people say you shouldserve as a Councillor, you serve as aCouncillor.

Are you in any way disturbedby the raging controversy inBenue State, over the qualifica-tion of MINDA group in Zone ‘B’Senatorial District to producethe next Governor, consideringthat the MINDA group has al-ready produced the current TorTiv IV? Do you have any fearsthat this development couldnegatively affect your interestin serving the people of BenueState?

My first view is that theGovernorship of Benue State is opento all indigenes of Benue State – Zones‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C’. My second comment isa prayer: May the state produce thebest candidate. Zone ‘C’ [Idoma] isentitled to the governorship of Benue

State, just as Zone ‘B’. By calculationsnow that Zone ‘A’ has had its share(the present Governor is from Zone‘A’), so, if the calculations are whatwe do in Mathematics, one would saythat it should be between Zone ‘B’ andZone ‘C’. And even within Zone ‘B’, wewill say its MINDA and Zone ‘C’because the Zone ‘B’ part has also hashad its share (Governor GeorgeAkume). It’s just that like they say,politics may not be like we have inMathematics, 2 + 2 being 4.

But to answer your question, Ithink Zone ‘C’ has equal entitlementto the governorship of Benue State,just as MINDA part of Zone ‘B’, butmay the state produce the best so thatwhat the past governors have donein Benue State is going to be sutainedand improved upon. I think, withtime, all the zones will come togetherand say “We need the best to moveBenue State forward.”

What Suswam has done, to sustainit, we need the best because you mustappreciate that it costs a lot of moneyto construct a road; it costs a lot ofmoney to put up an electricityproject. If the Governor has donethat, we need to sustain the level ofdevelopment now. I’d say that thepeople of Zone ‘C’ and the MINDA partof Zone ‘B” are entitled to produce thenext governor of Benue State so maywe get the best to sustain what’s onthe ground now.

When you pray and hope for“the best” person to emerge asthe next Governor of BenueState, are you not worried thatsuch factors as the low level ofpolitical awareness, povertyand money influence, god-fatherism, electoral malprac-tice, etc could tend to make itdifficult, if not impossible for thebest candidate to emerge in theelectoral process to come?

I think what I can say is that, frommy interaction with people in BenueState and generally in Nigeria today,there’s tremendous awareness.People are asking very fundamentalquestions. People who have come outas candidates or people who wish tobring up themselves for elections arebeing asked questions – theirpedigree; their past. These questions,I’ve seen them in the media andeverywhere. I think it’s a good thingthat is happening. People can go backand educate the rural people like,“look, we need this calibre of peopleto move the state forward.”Everywhere in the world, money isinvolved in politics, even for logistics.

In the United States of America(USA), billions of dollars were spenton politics, so I don’t think it is onlyin Nigeria that money is involved inpolitics.

I think what was happening in thepast was that the pedigree of peoplewas not as pronounced as it is now,and I think good things are happen-ing as people are asking questions:“What have you done before?” “Letus know your past.” So, I think, even-tually, these fundamental questionswill overtake any other consider-ation.

special interviewNational Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013 15

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Engr Atume

But to answer yourquestion, I think Zone ‘C’has equal entitlement tothe governorship of BenueState, just as MINDA partof Zone ‘B’, but may thestate produce the best sothat what the pastgovernors have done inBenue State is going to besutained and improvedupon.

‘Am available for more service to my people’

CBN unveils 24-hour chequeclearing system in Abuja, LagosThe long awaited

cheque truncationplatform introduced

by the Central Bank ofNigeria to reduce thesettlement cycle of a chequeto 24 hours from seventy-two hours has been unveiledin its Abuja and Lagosoffices.

The system allows all branchesof the Central Bank to capture allcheques in the respectivebranches and maintain them in acentral server in Lagos, whileallowing all captured chequesfrom the bank to be transmittedto the clearing house from Lagos.

The apex bank is collaboratingwith Precise FinancialSystems (PFS), an indigenoussoftware development companywhich implemented the chequetruncation lifecycle for the CentralBank and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems(NIBSS) to achieve this objective,

16 National Accord, Monday, Apiril 1, 2013

and would ensure that chequespresented for settlement areresolved within stipulated datecountry-wide.

Managing Director/CEO PFS,Mr. Yele Okeremi , the partner inthis project, said the system isresponsible for the processing ofall inward cheques as the systemimplements all required maker-checker rules of the banks.

“With the activation of chequetruncation regime throughiTELLER platform in Nigeria, oneimportant challenge the systemhas addressed is the ability of theCBN to meet the deadline forcheque truncation nationwide.Aside from that, the platform hasalso assisted the CBN to reducecost, time and the stress involvedin its cheque clearing operationsas the system removes all logisticscosts associated with clearing,” hesaid.

Further enumerating thebenefits of cheque truncation

system, he said before the newregime, Nigerian banks wouldhave to send their outwardcheques to respective centralclearing departments by dispatchriders or bullion vans. However,there would not be any need forthat again as cheques can betruncated directly at the branch ofdeposit.

“This removes time-wastingcollation and photocopyingexercises usually carried out atthe bank branches. It alsoremoves the need to post-encodecheques and this provides theplatform to use more agile chequescanners for image and MICRcapture,” he added.

Other benefits of the newsystems, according to Mr.Okeremi, include reduction ofstress and human efforts inclearing, elimination of all chequessubstitution tendencies, reductionof time of consummating manualtransaction thereby enabling the

to run seamlessly for effective andefficient cheque paymentprocessing.

“Championing the on-goingcheque truncation system is oneway NIBSS is enabling the chequepayment and processing system inthe nation. The financialinstitutions in the country are fastswitching their practices to complywith the new cheque truncationregime.

“One basic implication of thenew system is that the chequeclearing system in the country istending towards real time clearingpractice. The system has to be wellpositioned to ensure reliability,availability, sustainability andrecoverability in case of anydisaster, both by individualfinancial institutions as playersand NIBSS as the supervisor,” hesaid.

NIBSS’ role in the new regime,he said, includes the provision ofalternative backup systemwhereby any financial institutionthat experiences failure in their in-house clearing system would fallback to ensure that they meet upwith every clearing session’sactivities.

The cheque truncation platformis expected to go live in otherbranches of the Central Bank bythe end of March.

FG Commits $100m to FacilitateOil Exploration in the North

CBN Governor, SanusiLamido Sanusi

cashier to focus on other customerrequirements as well as reductionof the man-hours required toattend to other customer’s needamong others.

NIBSS has a critical supervisoryrole in the cheque clearingsystems. In that way, the systemenables the cheque clearing system

The Federal Governmenthas provided the sum of $100million in 2013 to facilitatethe exploration activities foroil and gas in the Northernpart of the country, theNorthern Economic SummitGroup has said.

The money would be utilized inthe ongoing projects in the ChadBasin, Benue Trough, Bida basin,and Sokoto-Rima basin, amongothers.

Chairman of the NorthernEconomic Summit and formerInformation and NationalOrientation Minister, ProfessorJerry Gana, who gave a progressreport of action taken on economicdevelopment issues in the regionsaid that the money would be usedfor continuous assessment ofhydrocarbon resourcepotentialities of the seven inlandbasins in the country.

Besides the $100 million for2013, Gana said that governmenthad, in 2011, provided the sum of$70 million and another $70million in year 2012 for the sameexercise.

“Government provided in 2011,$70 million; 2012, $70 million and2013, $100 million for thehydrocarbon exploration in theLake Chad Basin and othernorthern hydrocarbon basins.

“In 2011, NNPC had, through itstechnical consultants, concluded

the search, evaluation andidentification of capable AirborneGeophysical Survey companies forhydrocarbon exploration of theinland basin of Nigeria,” theprofessor said.

Gana said that government hadconcluded the necessaryarrangements to award thecontract for airborne gravity,magnetic and electromagneticexploration surveys of the seveninland basins in the country

On hydro-electric power projectat Zungeru and the Mambila

plateau, the chairman remarkedthat government had included theMambilla power project amongthe projects to be supported underthe NIPP/NDPHC programme,noting that there are many ongoinggeneration, transmission anddistribution projects designed toimprove power supply in thenorthern part of the country.

“It is important to note thatgovernment has awarded the 700megawatts Zungeru hydro-power project at the cost of $1.2billion (N170 billion). Groundbreaking ceremony will beperformed in April 2013,” Ganasaid.

The chairman furtherremarked that the KashimbilaDam had reached advanced stageof construction, while GuraraPhase 1 had been completed.

On the Mambilla hydro powerproject, Gana said that theMemoranda of Understanding(MoU) for the construction workshad been signed with two Chinesecompanies at a construction costof $6.4 billion, while the biddingprocess and financingarrangement is scheduled for thefirst quarter of 2013.

The summit also urged the BookHaram sect to embrace dialogue inorder to foster peace in thenorthern region as developmentcan only thrive under a peacefulatmosphere.Professor Jerry Gana

The Independent PetroleumMarketers Association ofNigeria, IPMAN, (WesternZone) has commended themanagement of theNigerian NationalPetroleum Corporation(NNPC) and its downstreamand marketing subsidiary,the Pipelines and ProductsMarketing Company (PPMC)for the comprehensiverehabilitation of pipelinesand depots under the System2B Pipeline which servicesthe Southwest geo-politicalzone of the country and theIlorin axis.

The Acting Group GeneralManager Group Public Affairs ofthe Division of NNPC, TuminiGreen, who disclosed this in Abujasaid that IPMAN’s appreciationwas conveyed to the Corporationin a letter jointly signed by itsWestern Zonal Chairman,Olumide Ogunmade, WesternZonal Secretary, Dr. A. O. Idowuand the chairmen of Mosimi,Ibadan, Ore, Satellite and Ilorin

NNPC, PPMC Get IPMAN Commendationover Rehabilitation of Pipelines and Depots

Depots.She quoted IPMAN to have

stated: “We have noticed thegradual restoration andreactivation of almost all thedepots under System 2B and therenewal of the facilities at MosimiDepot which is central to theactivities of depots under System2B. We have also been informedof the extensive rehabilitation andexpansion of the Atlas Cove Jettyand wish to congratulate you onall these efforts.”

“We have also noticed thedetermination of PPMC/NNPC totackle the ugly problem of pipelinevandalism along System 2B. Theeffort of the Corporation to tacklevandals at the black spots in Arepoand other areas is beginning toyield positive results,” IPMANfurther stated.

The independent marketersalso pledged their loyalty andsupport to the corporation inensuring a hitch-free supply ofpetroleum products in theWestern Zone in particular andacross the country in general.

business17National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

BPE gives offer letter to cmec-pacific for Omotosho power plantThe Bureau of PublicEnterprises (BPE) hastransmitted an offer letter toCMEC-Pacific in respect of aPower Purchase Agreement(PPA) for the sale ofOmotosho power plant. Thesale transaction is through adebt-equity swap process.

Presenting the offer letter to theChairman of CMEC-Pacific,Adeleke Adedeji, the actingDirector General of the BPE, Mr.Benjamin Ezra Dikki, said that itwas in fulfillment of the decisionof the National Council onPrivatisation (NCP) whichapproved the sale at its lastmeeting which held February 28,2013.

NCP had approved that CMEC-Pacific pays USD$217,531,507.79for the power plant. However, thenet total amount accruable to theFederal Government for the plantwould be USD$ 82,336,179.42given that USD$30,325,386would be deducted from thecapital cost for the construction ofa switch yard for theTransmission Company ofNigeria (TCN).

It would be recalled that thePhase 1 of Omotosho power plantwhich has a capacity of 335MW

was constructed in 2002. Thetotal price under the turnkeycontract was $166,724,578.

The Fe de ra l Go ve rnm e ntfunded 35% of the cost whileth e b a la nce o f 65 % w asf i nan ce d t hro ugh v e nd o rfinancing provided by ChinaN ati o nal Machi ne ry andEquipment Import and ExportCorporation (CMEC) at theinterest rate of 6% per annum.

It was initially conceived thatthe po we r pro ject , a fte rco mple t io n, wo uld o pe ratecommercially and the proceedsfrom the sales of electricity willbe used for the repayment ofthe vendor financing and theinterest payment.

However the delay in thecom plet i o n pe ri o d co uple dwith limitation in gas supplyand paucity of funds at PowerHolding Company of Nigeria(PHCN) resulted to default inth e p ay m e n t o f t he de btleading to the accumulation ofunpaid invoices to CMEC. Thisresponsibility was taken overby th e D e bt Ma nag e m e ntOffice (DMO) which informedth e B ure au o f P ubl i cEnterprises, that it had paida p p r o x i m a t e l y

Ecobank, the leadingpan-African bankinggroup, yesterdayannounced its results forthe year ended December31, 2012 as they representEcobank's strongestfinancial performance inits 25-year of operation.

Highlights in the fantasticresults shows that revenuesgrew by 46 % to $1.8 billion(2011: $1.2 billion), pre-taxprofits rose by 25% to $348million (2011:$277.4 million),while net income advanced by39% to $286.7 million (2011:$206.8 million).

Commenting on the bank'sperformance, Thierry Tanoh,Ecobank's Group CEO, said"These very pleasing resultsreflect the successfulintegration of our two majoracquisitions in Ghana andNigeria, strong demand forretail banking services acrossour 33 country platform,increasing trade andcommercial flows betweenMiddle Africa and the rest ofthe world together with astrong performance of ourdedicated staff".

He said the bank is closelyfocused on delivering costefficiencies, whilstmaintaining high levels ofservice and innovation,stating that in all the bank isconfident that 2013 will beanother year of progress as it

Ecobank group reportsfantastic results in 2012

Ecobank Group ChiefExecutive Officer, Thierry Tanoh

US D$10 4,2 67 , 966. 2 2 toCM E C fo r th e pla nt as a tSeptember 30, 2012.

B a se d o n the app ro v a lre ce i ve d b y t he Fe de r a lMi ni s try o f Po we r fr o mPresident Goodluck Jonathan

on July 18, 2010 to proceedwith the proposed divestiture ofFederal Government’s investmentin the plant, the Bureau soughtand received NCP’s approval forthe divestiture of OmotoshoPower Plc through debt-equity

…..$1.8bn revenue; $348m profitsfurther strengthens anddevelop the Group to thebenefit of all of itsstakeholders."

Laurence do Rego,Ecobank's Group ExecutiveDirector, Finance and Risk,added that "Ecobank isstrategically positioned tocapture much of Africa'sorganic growth, whilst ourdiversified business model isdesigned to mitigate risk,stressing that the bank is nowfocused on maximizing thereturns from its uniqueplatform via a centralizedapproach to cost and riskmanagement."

Transcorp Hilton Abujajoined the globalcommunity to mark EarthHour 2013 from 8:30 p.m. -9:30 p.m. local time onSaturday, March 23, 2013 aspeople and organizationsaround the world turn offtheir lights in support ofaction on global climatechange. Transcorp Hiltonand many of the more than3,900 hotels that are part ofthe Hilton Worldwideportfolio of brands tookpart in the event thatmobilized more than onebillion people worldwide.

“By our concerted actionsduring the Earth Hour, the hotelsaved 571 kilowatts of electricitywhich represented about 28%reduction on power consumptionin just one hour. We continue todemonstrate our commitment toenergy conservation and we areencouraging our guests andneighbors to join us as we gobeyond the Earth Hour insupport of this global effort tosave our planet,” said SholaAdeyemo, the hotel’s spokesman.

Transcorp Hilton marked theEarth Hour with a variety ofactivities including: Letters toguests encouraging them toswitch off their bedroom lightsduring the Earth Hour and totake actions that result in energyconservation beyond the hour,Poster campaign around thehotel during the week leading tothe Earth Hour, Candlelightdinners in all the restaurants,

Transcorp Hilton Marks Earth Hour 2013in Support of Energy Conservation

A cross section of guests at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja's celebration of Earth Hour last weekend.

Switching off of all non-essentiallights in the hotel during thehour, Planting of 20 palm treesto show commitment beyond thehour, youth advocacy andcapacity building initiatives onenvironmental sustainability,hosting of candlelight processionin the hotel.

Organized by World WildlifeFund (WWF), Earth Hour beganin 2007 as a way for individualsto show how simple steps canmake a significant impact onreducing greenhouse gases andaddressing climate change. Morethan 2.2 million people took partin the first Earth Hour in Sydney,Australia and it has since turnedinto a movement with more than7,000 cities and towns in 152countries and territories andhundreds of millions ofparticipants across sevencontinents. It continues todemonstrate the new era asmembers go “Beyond the Hour”to commit to lasting action for theplanet.

Hilton Worldwide is the firstmajor multi-brand hospitalitycompany to make sustainabilitymeasurement a brand standardand recently earned ISO 9001and 14001 certifications forquality and environmentalmanagement - one of the largestvolume certifications awarded forcommercial buildings. As part ofthat standard, Hilton Worldwide-branded properties commit tocontinuous improvements totheir overall sustainability resultseach year. Across the portfolio,

Hilton Worldwide has a made afive-year commitment, from2009 to 2014, to reduce energyconsumption by 20 percent, CO2emissions by 20 percent, wasteoutput by 20 percent and waterconsumption by 10 percent. In2012, Hilton Worldwide achievedits waste goal two years of aheadof schedule and reduced its wasteoutput by 23.3 percent.

Additionally, HiltonWorldwide saved more than$174 million in cumulativesavings from energy efficiencyprojects reporting throughLightStay. The company is ontrack to meet to meet its goalsand has reduced its energy useby 9.7 percent; carbon outputby 10.9 percent; and water useby 7.5 percent.

Hilton Worldwide’s efforts tocontinuously improve itseconomic and sustainabilityperformance align with thecompany’s commitment toTravel with Purpose  to createshared value for its businessand communities around theworld. Launched in 2011,Travel with Purpose is built onfour areas of focus - creatingopportunities for individuals toreach their fullpot e nt i a l ;   s t r e ng t h e n i ngcommunities where weo p e r a t e ;   c e l e b r a t i n gcultures and the power oftravel; and livingsustainably through themeasurement, analysis andimprovement of our use ofnatural resources.

swap during its first meeting of12th May, 2011. NCP also approvedthe transfer of assets to the projectcompany –Omotosho Power Plc—which was incorporated onNovember 10, 2006 as a vehicle toown the assets of the plant.

Continued from Backpage

Achebe opened our eyes to theAfrican world. He loved to quotethis passage from the AmbiguousAdventure: “Instead of pickingand choosing what to acceptfrom the West and what to reject,Africa is a quiver withcourteousness, metamorphosingin a space of one generation underthis new egotism which the Westis scattering abroad.”

To him, arts must be in theservice of the society and thatshould continue until we couldtake for granted what the Westnow takes for granted (a push-button life of leisure); until then,“Arts for Arts Sake” wouldremain a “deodorized dog shit”to quote his exact words.

As though Achebe waskeeping his house in order beforeembracing more globalengagements, he packed muchinto the 1980/81 session. Thushe organized the Okochi (dryseason in Igbo language) Festivalto which he invited story tellersfrom the villages, in an attemptto make the university recognizethe real oral literature. Thevernacular recitals took placeduring the full moon and in theopen-air of Princess AlexandraBuilding – its roof was destroyedby bombs during the 1967-1970Nigerian Civil War and theuniversity decided to keep it thatway was as a war relic.

Achebe later told me inUpstate New York, USA, over adecade later that the final dutyhe did before leaving Nigeria

was to organize the Associationof Nigerian Authors in 1981.Emeka Atamah and I served asthe only members of theconference’s secretariat. Itsspecial guest was, yes, Ngugi.For Ngugi’s address as a SpecialGuest of Honour, the hall wasjam-packed. I remember the lastquestion he answered: “in whatway should established writershelp aspiring ones?” He said inevery way possible; that he washelped too by one Nigerian whohelped in getting a manuscriptto his publishers. Then Ngugilooked up before announcingthat the novelist was Achebe andthe manuscript became “WeepNot Child”. As the clapping dieddown, he concluded: “So, I mustpay homage to my literaryfather”. And he went to shakeAchebe’s outstretched hands.

So, was Ngugi his favouriteAfrican novelist? He shook hishead left and right and left againwhen I asked him that questionin the US, where he lived anddied after the 1990 car accidentthat rendered him wheel-chairbound. He said that if there wasa book he never got tired ofreading, it was Kane’s“Ambiguous Adventure”. Why?He said the book was aphilosophical dialogue betweenAfrica and the West. “Look,Tony, it is there in the book thatmany Africans, often thebrightest and the best that wesend to the West to understandthe Western ways and so help usin the fight for the world’sresources are often conquered

by the ‘itinerary itself’. It iswritten there that many of suchpeople never really return toAfrica and end up neither whitesnor blacks but hybrids filledwith shame”. “Tony”, hecontinued, “many now in theUS, will never return to Africa,neither will their children. Whocan quantify that lose toAfrica?”.

Achebe himself neverreturned, he died there … but didhe bother about such things? Onmy second visit to him at BardCollege, Annandale on Hudson,Upstate New York, he told methat he was still in a hospital bedin London (after his 1990 caraccident) thinking how hewould have to remodel his housein Ogidi, South-East Nigeria, sothat he would be able to functionat all there, when a visitor wasushered in. He was the Presidentof an American College. Heasked if Achebe would be readyto move in as part of the facultyonce he was ready to leave thehospital. Achebe said yes for hedid not want the incapacitationto end his productive life.

On getting to the UnitedStates, the purpose built (forhim) “Achebe House” was ready,over-looking the CatskillMountain that reminded one ofthe Nsukka hills, beside Achebe’sformer University of Nigeria,Nsukka. He told me he could usehis wheel chair to navigate allthrough the house and the entirecampus. But would the situationbe the same in Nigeria? Heanswered the question in an

Acheberesque way: “Nigeria isa sorry story”. I did not fail tonote the understatement onceagain.

One question many haveasked is if Achebe was worriedthat he never won a Nobel Prizein Literature. I asked him thatquestion and he said,understatedly once again, “I donot lose sleep over that.”

For a while I have habouredthe fear that Achebe couldactually reject the prize to pokehis nose against the West as hetwice rejected national awardsfrom Nigeria –for failure ofleadership. But now, suchwould ever remain one of thegreat unknowns of history;why he was not thought fit forthe prize and if he would haveaccepted it. Yet it remains afact that in 1986, Africanwriters were invited for aseminar in Sweden of all places.Achebe not only turned itdown, he published an articlesaying that the place to discussAfrican literature was in Africaor a foreign place where Africanliterature was taken seriously.Chinweizu, (of the “West andthe Rest of Us” book fame) thepolyvalent scholar who studiedMaths and Philosophy atMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology before taking a PhDin History and branching offinto American Economy andwriting literary criticismbooks, etc, then alerted theworld that Achebe had by thatact written himself out of theNobel Prize. That year, an

African, a Nigerian, WoleSoyinka, became a Nobellaureate.

Yes, could he have lived onlyon his earnings from his novels?He said an emphatic yes to that.Did critics bother him? No, hereplied: “They almost all saynice things about me – and thenyou have to realize that there aresome lunatics out there. Youhave to learn to notice theserious, weigh what they haveto say for no one is perfect. Butsome are just lunatics.”

As Achebe’s former student,the question I have faced themost is this: “How did he teachhis books?” My unvaryinganswer has been this: “I wish Iknew”. But Achebe never taughthis books. Prof. EmmanuelObiechina taught my class“Things Fall Apart”, “Arrow ofGod”, etc. But sitting withAchebe years later in the US, heanswered my questions easily:“Things Fall Apart” did notrender an idealized picture of theIgbo of that era. You could almostsay that it was a harsh, evenwicked, society. But, and hesmiled, as you supplied the rest:we were not just savages and thewhite man, acting on God’sbehalf saved us – which he hadstated before as one of his reasonsfor writing “Things Fall Apart”.The truth must lie somewherein between, but until the lionbegins to tell its own stories, thestory will always be told by thehunter. And Achebe led agigantic eruption of stories fromthe African point of view.

ACHEBE: The Novelist as Teacher

viewpoint18 Monday, April 1, 2013, National Accord

Before the discovery of oil in Nigeria inOloibiri, Bayelsa State, in 1956,Nigeria derived major part of its

revenue from agriculture. Every region ofthe country is noted for a particularagricultural product like palm oil, cocoa,groundnut, cotton, rubber, etc. WesternNigeria was particularly the majorproducer of cocoa from which so much wasmade which was prudently used by the latepolitical icon, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

With money realised from cocoa, he builtthe Cocoa House (then the tallest buildingin Africa) in Ibadan, established the firstTV Station in Sub-Saharan Africa andprovided free education, among others.Northern Nigeria was particularly thechief producer of groundnut (I stillremember with nostalgia the story of thegroundnut pyramid in the North). EasternNigeria gave the country coal and palmoil. Nigeria witnessed a reasonabledevelopment made possible by the moneymade from the sale of these agriculturalproducts. Other non-agricultural resourcescomplement the revenue of the country,but a greater part of Nigeria’s revenue thencame from agriculture.

The discovery of oil in Nigeria is one ofthe greatest things to happen to thecountry. But, rather than being a blessing,it is causing more problems. The huge

The Nigerian economy and theproblems of overdependence on oil

By AFUYE AKINYEMI money generated from oil by Nigeria thoughhas been used to finance developmentalprojects like building of roads, educationalprojects; Nigeria has not succeeded in usingthis money to resuscitate the dead powersector. As a result of irregular power supply,many industries have folded up, resulting injob cuts, scarce employment, and alsomaking artisans, who rely on electricity fortheir daily income, losing money.

Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producer inthe world, but instead of seeing goodinfrastructure like good schools, roads, stablepower supply, modern transport,technological advancement, all we see areterribly bad schools, dysfunctional powersector, ever rising unemployment rate.Nigeria is underdeveloped despite the hugemoney it generates from oil. Oil revenue isalso responsible for the large scale of politicalviolence and ethnic rivalry because citizensknow there is extremely high pay for politicaloffice-holders made possible by oil money.Politicians devise all means to get into publicoffice. What regions can gain from the hugeoil money is also partly responsible for ethnicunrest.

The most disturbing of the developmentalissues regarding Nigeria’s oil is the worrisomeover-dependence on oil revenue and theneglect of agriculture. Nigerian leaders havefailed to realise that oil can dry up. How willNigeria finance its infrastructural projects ifthat happens in the future? Nigeria does not

even have a good oil reserve compared to anon-oil producing country like the UnitedStates of America with large oil reserve. Asa result of global warming and the need forcountries to explore alternative sources ofenergy (like solar, wind, etc), lessimportance is being attached to oil becauseof its carbon emission (a major cause of globalwarming and pollution). This means thatoil may become less relevant to the economicsurvival of nations in the future.

Let’s look at attempts by nations towardshaving alternative energy to oil. In 2007,the European Union member states agreedthat the EU is to use 20 per cent renewableenergy in the future and that it has toreduce carbon dioxide emissions in 2020by at least 20 per cent. It is agreed that one-tenth of all cars and trucks in the EU 27member countries should be running onbio-fuel. This means less reliance on oil.

It has been revealed by scientists thatan audacious proposal to build a 5,000-mileelectricity super-grid, stretching fromSiberia to Morocco and Egypt to Icelandwould slash Europe’s C02 (carbon dioxide)emissions by a quarter. The scheme wouldmake the use of renewable energyparticularly wind-power so reliable andcheap that it would replace fossil fuels on anunprecedented scale. It is said that morethan 70 French towns have already goneback to the past by introducing horse-drawncarriages to replace petrol and diesel

powered vehicles for local tasks such ascollecting rubbish, street cleaning and takingchildren to school. Many countries will soonjoin the revolution.

All the above simply means that oil isgradually losing its importance and maybecome less relevant in the future. Nigeriashould learn a lesson for its over-dependenceon oil. The time is here for our governmentto think about the good money we can makeby exploring the gains in other sectors likeentertainment, tourism, mining, etc. Coals,bitumen for road construction are few of themineral resources Nigeria have. We shouldhelp develop our tourist attractions likebuilding world-class malls, event centres andentertainment facilities.

We should also develop our beach,museums, monuments and historical sites.We should understudy how Dubai became atourist destination and other touristdestinations like the United States of America,South Africa, UK, Kenya and The Gambia.We can also help develop the entertainmentindustry by providing financial support forentertainment practitioners. People will payto visit our tourist attractions to enjoyproducts of our entertainment industry.Thus, we can make good money fromdiversification. Over-dependence on oil iskilling the economy.AFUYE Akinyemi is the President

of Law Students’ Association of WestAfrica.

How could the proposedamendment to the PDP consti-tution seeking to make Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan thesole presidential candidate in2015 affect your ambition?

As a loyal PDP member, I amkeenly watching this developmentand could do anything within demo-cratic means and internal mecha-nisms of conflict resolution to tacklethis challenge. As the ruling partythat boasts to be the largest in Africa,the PDP should set standards for in-ternal democracy which should be atemplate for other parties. In fact,they (members) should not only beproud of its size but also of its cred-ibility in the eyes of Nigerians. Pro-moting the principles of democracyis the bedrock on which the PDP wasfounded in 1998 by like-minded Ni-gerians. Therefore, any attempt tostifle internal democracy, make levelplaying field impossible and impos-ing a candidate on the party beforethe elections would damage the per-ception of the party.

I am happy that the National Chair-man, Bamanga Tukur, has been speak-ing along these lines. PresidentJonathan is entitled to seek the partyticket but that doesn’t mean othersshould be shut out completelythrough a party constitutionalamendment.

This amendment is unnecessarybecause it would set precedents thatwould undermine the democraticprinciples to which the party de-clared to be committed. Nothinggives us psychological satisfactionand ease better than winning fairly.With this amendment, however, canthe PDP improve its public percep-tion and convince fellow membersthat it is committed to fairness, trans-parency and a level playing field inthe conduct of its internal affairs? Ifwe don’t reject this amendment now,it would produce problems in the fu-ture that the party may find too em-barrassing to handle.

This effort to amend the constitu-tion to please the ambition of any in-dividual is in bad faith. In fact, it de-feats the whole purpose of the policy

of reconciliation and re-uniting ag-grieved former members.

If the PDP goes ahead with theamendment to make Jonathanthe sole candidate in 2015 with-out primaries, would you betempted to join the AllProgressives Congress as yourecently applauded the mergerof opposition parties whichaims to oust your party?

Provided PDP members are free tovote according to their conscience orpersonal convictions of what is right,the amendment may face tough op-position. The sanctity of the demo-cratic principles on which the PDP wasfounded should not be sacrificed onthe grounds of expediency to gratifythe ego of individual leaders. Shouldwe mutilate a whole legal documentby which a party is run for the sake ofanyone else’s ambition or ego? Presi-dent Jonathan can throw this hat intothe ring, if that is what he wants. It isimportant, however, that the processof his nomination by the party shouldbe open, fair, just and transparent.The contest should be conductedthrough open primaries. Other partymembers should be allowed to par-ticipate in the primaries. If they ulti-mately lose to Jonathan through afair contest, they will embrace andcongratulate him. What is wrong withopen primaries or level-playingground? Amending the PDP constitu-tion for the sake of making PresidentJonathan the sole candidate is abso-lutely unnecessary. Exclusion in thenomination of candidates amounts toimposition which is inconsistent withdemocratic practice. I have read allmanners of arguments by propo-nents, saying that the American sys-tem gives the option of first refusal tothe incumbent and that the PDPshould do the same. That is very mis-leading.

In the first place, it is not true thatAmerican incumbents are not chal-lenged at party primaries; there is nosuch rule in the United States. Thelate Senator Edward Kennedymounted a vigorous challengeagainst the then incumbent JimmyCarter. Although Carter won, thecontest went down to the wire. It wasresolved through a vote at the nomi-

nation convention of the DemocraticParty. On the second aspect of yourquestion, I wish to make a clarifica-tion. As a loyal PDP member and asone of the founding fathers, I couldn’thave said the emergence of APC isgood for the death of PDP. What I saidin Ibadan was that, with the emer-gence of APC, a two-party systemseems to be unfolding in the countryand that this development is consis-tent with my advocacy for a two-party system in Nigeria. I never saidthe merger of opposition parties asyou alleged is good for the ouster ofPDP from office.

Can you shed more light onthe controversy surroundingyour membership of the PDPBoard of Trustees?

On my alleged removal as a mem-ber of the Board of Trustees of PDP, Ido not wish to engage in speculation.No one has communicated such de-cision to me yet. It would, however,be unfortunate if it turns out to betrue. As I said, it would be a setbackfor the policy of reconciliation em-barked upon by the Alex Ekwueme-led committee. This move is like un-doing the positive outcome of whatDr. Ekwueme had achieved in thatrespect.

Is it true that PresidentJonathan signed a one-termagreement with the North?

With the zoning policy of the PDPvirtually dead, talking about agree-ments at this point is somehow atricky issue. I am not sure I am in theright position to talk about what youcall the one-term agreement. Gover-nor Babangida Aliyu of Niger Staterecently referred to that agreementor understanding. A gentleman’sword should be his bond. I contestedagainst Jonathan during the 2011PDP presidential primaries and,therefore, anything I say now mightbe subject to misinterpretation. Be-cause of this fact, I don’t want tobelabour the points about agree-ments or understandings. I am, how-ever, primarily concerned about theimage of my party in the eyes of Ni-gerians. Changing rules or the consti-tution of the party for the sake of ex-pediency is not my idea of honour. Ifwe conveniently live in denial or pre-tend that the party didn’t reach anyunderstanding on anything, then whowould take us seriously? How can yoube a beneficiary of something andlater pretend that the policy that putyou in office is no longer relevant?The emergence of (House of Repre-sentatives) Speaker AminuTambuwal against the party insis-tence on zoning was a consequenceof abandoning principle for the sakeof expediency. With the election ofTambuwal as the Speaker, followingthe party’s declaration that zoningwas dead, the PDP leadership wasmorally disarmed to prevent theemergence of Tambuwal as Speakerin the so-called breach of zoningpolicy – the same power sharing for-mula, which the party declared dead.Such is the consequence of hypoc-risy.

The election of Tambuwal was amost embarrassing moment for the

PDP. If you rejected zoning for thenomination of President Jonathan,what moral right do you have to telllawmakers to elect their Speakerbased on zoning, which you dis-carded?

When people are blinded by expe-diency, they hardly foresee the con-sequences of opportunism. Today,the President is from the South-Southgeopolitical zone; Vice­-President,North-West; President of the Senate,North-Central; Speaker of the Houseof Representatives, North-West; ChiefJustice of Nigeria, North-West; Sec-retary to the Government of the Fed-eration, South-East; Deputy SenatePresident, South-East; and DeputySpeaker, South-East. This wasn’t theintention of the abandoned zoningpolicy, but we have to live with thisunpleasant reality because of themyopic attitude of some people. TheSouth-West is today crying veryloudly about marginalisation, thanksto the abandonment of zoning for thesake of expediency. This issue is notabout Atiku but about the imperativeof sustaining arrangements thatwould guarantee every section of Ni-geria access to the nation’s highestpublic office. We have been callednames by people that benefitted fromthis arrangement. Zoning had suc-cessfully achieved the objectives ofequitable power sharing. If anybodynow says zoning is not good, thatwouldn’t change the reality of its ben-efits. The arrangement had signifi-cantly reduced the fear of dominationby any section or group over others.

Would you, as a President,grant amnesty to Boko Haram?

If I were the President, I wouldhave no hesitation to throw the ballinto the court of the Boko Haram lead-ers. As was the case with the NigerDelta militancy, I would declare am-nesty for the sect members with adeadline within which to surrendertheir arms. With the expiration of thedeadline, if the sect members don’tlay down their arms, then my govern-ment would be in a better position toface its critics that accuse it of nottaking the initiative. The deadline forthe surrender of arms would showwhether the Boko Haram fighterswant peace or not.

Do you see the revivedPeoples Democratic Movementas strong enough to stopJonathan from winning elec-tion?

I have nothing personally againstPresident Jonathan. The issue here isabout principle and internal democ-racy. This is not about PDM; it is abouta struggle to entrench internal de-mocracy. Should we destroy every-thing internal democracy stands forjust for the sake of forcing anybodyinto line to support only one contes-tant? The PDP, like any political or-ganization, is a convergence of vari-ous political interests and forces thatcame together to form the party, as itis today. I would work together withall stakeholders within the PDP tobring about positive change fromwithin PDP. This issue is not merelyabout PDM. The principle behind mystruggle is beyond the PDM.

interview19National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

Continued from Page 5

Atiku opens up on OBJ, El-Rufa’i

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Nasir El-Rufai

National Accord, Monday, April 1, 201320

From the Maiden NUJ Ladi Lawal Merit Award

21National Accord, Monday, April 1, 2013

Barely nine months after NATIONAL ACCORD Newspaper successfully clinched the Chairmanship of theAbuja Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in July 2012, the paper again made a mark at therecent maiden edition of the Ladi Lawal NUJ Journalist of the Year Merit Award ceremony where our man,Chris DNK Richards, won the “Best Crime Reporter of the Year 2012” Award.

R-L: Chris Richards hands over his plague and certificate to the Pub-lisher/Editor-in-Chief of NATIONAL ACCORD, Mr Tom Chiahemen at thecorporate headquarters of the organization.

R-L: Editor of NATIONAL ACCORD, Mr Patrick Ogar,; Publisher, Mr TomChiahemen; the award winner, Chris Richards and reporter, DominicAkpensuan, celebrating the award.

22 Monday, April 1, 2013, National Accord

Yobo snubby Keshi

divides EaglesA frican champions

Nigeria are sharplydivided after skipper

Joseph Yobo was axed byCoach Stephen Keshi forthe recent Kenya clash.MTNFootball.com has

specially gathered that theSuper Eagles players are dividedwith some behind snubbedYobo and some particularly thenew players in the teampitching tent with ‘Big Boss’Keshi.

Record-capped Yobo onlyplayed a bit role as Nigeriaclinched a third Africa Cup ofNations title in South Africa lastmonth.

His first-team place was takenby the upcoming KennethOmeruo.

Keshi, who himself wasNigeria skipper for many years,and Yobo have displayed aunited front in public, but inprivate there is a festeringpersonality clash between thetwo men.

Yobo, for one, hascomplained to both players andofficials that he is not regardedas team leader by the coach.

The height of this cold warbetween coach and player waswhen the Fenerbache defenderwas axed for the recent WorldCup qualifier against Kenya inCalabar with not even a phonecall from Keshi to his captain toexplain the rationale behindthis decision.

“Yobo is very upset that Keshidid not bother to even let himknow that he would not beinvolved in the match againstKeshi. Like Emenike, whoblasted the coach for not gettingin touch with him after hereturned to his Russian clubinjured from the AFCON, Yoboequally feels insulted by Keshi,”a reliable sourceinformedMTNFootball.com.

Keshi told the media Yobo

was not needed for the 2014World Cup qualifier against theHarambee Stars, which wouldhave ended disastrously but fora last-gasp equaliser by thehome team.

One of the Eagles top starssaid he was shocked that Yobowas dropped for the Kenyagame.

“Why was Yobo dropped?Could it be because he stood upto Keshi and his assistants asregards how some of the moniesthe team got for winning theAFCON were to be sharedequally among all the squadmembers?” asked a teamofficial.

Keshi still enjoys the supportof the players who only recentlybroke into his team, but themore established players arefirmly behind their skipper,who is closing in on a centuryof international caps.

Nigeria now face a dauntingtask to qualify for next year’sWorld Cup in Brazil after a 1-1draw at home to Kenya. Theyhave two games in Kenya andMalawi in June, while closestrivals Malawi have two homegames with their only away tiebeing in Nigeria in September.

Maigari charges F/Eagles to beast Mali•Yobo

N igeria FootballFederation (NFF)President Alhaji

Aminu Maigari has urgedthe Flying Eagles to wintoday’s third-place matchagainst Mali after they lostout in the semis.

The Flying Eagles on Tuesdaylost 2-0 to Egypt in the semi-finalsof the 2013 Africa YouthChampionship (AYC) in Algeria.

On Friday evening in Oran, the

Flying Eagles take on Mali, wholost on penalties to Ghana in theirown semi-final and who beatNigeria 1-0 in an opening GroupB match.

A very critical Maigari said thesix-time African champions didnot justify the support andconfidence of millions ofNigerians as well as thefederation and therefore urgedthem to step up their actbeginning with the third-placed

match against Mali.“We have given everything you

needed so that you couldsuccessfully retain yourchampionship, but you couldnot,” said Maigari when headdressed the team at the EdenAirport Hotel in Oran.

“We all expected a lot morefrom you, but you did not meetour target.

“All the same, you still have agame against Mali to determine

who finishes third in thetournament. This will alsodetermine which group you aredrawn into in the World Cup inTurkey.

“And so I urge you to bounceback with victory on Friday, andafter which we will go back andbegin preparations for the WorldCup.”

The NFF have also tasked thecoaches led by John Obuh tofortify the team with new call-upsahead of Turkey 2013.

Messi eyesanothermilestone

Page 23

There seems to be no endin sight for the troubles,between Mario Balotelli

and his club Manchester City asboth parties are embroiled in afresh dispute.Balotelli reportedCity to the Premier Leaguetribunal,after the player wasfined for his two weekswages,which is in the region of£340,000.

Since he stormed down thetunnel in Manchester City’s 2-3loss to city rivals Manchester

United,Balotelli has failed tomake an appearance for thePremier League champions.

It is understood that Balotelliwas fined internally by his clubfor a poor disciplinary recordlast season,that saw him miss 11games domestically and inEurope through suspensions.

Failing to get a favourabledecision after appealing theruling at City,the Italian strikertook the case outside the club,and is now expected to appear

in person in front of a three-man panel on Wednesday.

Speaking on theincident,PFA chief executiveGordon Taylor said: “We try toavoid situations like thiswherever possible, but theplayer and the club have notbeen able to resolve thesituation.”

Could this spiral the end ofBalotelli’s stay at ManchesterCity.

Mario Balotelli takes Manchester City to tribunal

•Balotelli •Feguson

23SPORTS

Messi eyes another milestoneWith a goal against

Celta Vigot o m o r r o w ,

Lionel Messi can becomethe first player to scoreagainst every Spanishleague opponent inconsecutive order.

Barcelona’s all-timeleading scorer netted arecord 73 goals in allcompetitions last seasonand hasn’t let up with 55so far this campaign.

Barcelona, along with RealMadrid and Malaga, will usethe return to domestic actionto prepare for the ChampionsLeague quarterfinals nextweek.

Barcelona leads the leagueby 13 points and is on its wayto recovering the title fromMadrid. It travels to ParisSaint-Germain on Tuesday forthe first leg of the ChampionsLeague quarterfinals.

“PSG will be a tough rival.They are a great team both inattack and defense and theyare deadly on the break,” saidBarcelona forward CristianTello, who could get a start onSaturday as others rest.

Madrid, meanwhile, visitsReal Zaragoza to warm up forGalatasaray’s visit onWednesday, when Malaga willwelcome German championBorussia Dortmund afterplaying at Rayo Vallecano onSaturday.

Messi is on a record run ofscoring in 18 straight leaguematches. The last time Messifailed to score in the leaguewas November 3. whenBarcelona didn’t need his goalsto beat Celta 3-1.

Because the Spanish leagueseason is scheduled with theteams playing each other inexact order, Messi has scoredagainst every other team inSpain since then.

Messi has scored 28 goalsduring the streak and has aleague-leading 42 for theseason through 28 rounds. Heholds the league record of 50goals from last season and nowhas 10 rounds left to try andbetter it.

The 25-year-old Messistarted his scoring run bystriking twice in Barcelona’s 4-2 win at Mallorca. Ten gameslater, he broke the oldmilestone held by Barcelona’sMariano Martin (1942-43) andMadrid’s Ronaldo (1996-97)by scoring four againstOsasuna in a 5-1 rout onJanuary 27.

Against a Celta team insecond-to-last place with onewin in its last 10 games andwithout suspended strikerIago Aspas, Barcelona’s mostdaunting challenges could beits players’ weary legs after

their commitments with theirnational sides and the lure oflooking ahead to PSG.

Barcelona will hope it doesn’tpick up any more injuries,especially in defense. It wasalready without Carles Puyoland Adriano before Jordi Albapulled a muscle in his right legin Spain’s 1-1 draw withFinland last Friday.

Barcelona also lost PedroRodriguez for 10 days with a leginjury after he scored the

EPL title race is over –Mancini

FlyingEagles not

all badKaduna United

technical director,Dahiru Sadi has said thepresent crop of FlyingEagles are not a bad sidedespite falling to defendthe Africa YouthChampionship (AYC)title in Algeria.

The erstwhile title holderslost 0-2 to the JuniorPharaohs of Egypt in AinTemouchent on Tuesday inthe semi-finals of thebiennial football fiesta inAlgeria.

Though, qualified for the2013 FIFA U-20 World Cupin Turkey, the Flying Eagleswill square up against theJunior Eagles of Mali in thelosers’ final match.

Sadi said the side’schallenges stemmed fromthe failure to convert theirchances at goal and play as ateam rather than asindividuals.

“We have a good team aswell as good players whosegreatest undoing was notbeing able to convert theirchances at goal.

“Egypt had fewer chancesthan Nigeria and were able toscore those chances while wethrew ours away.

“We played more ofindividual game comparedwith the Egyptians buthaving said that the teamweren’t an entirely bad side,”said the former Nigerianattacking midfielder tosupersport.com.

The former Flying Eaglesplayer said the coaches of theteam have their work welldefined as they return fromthe AYC campaign to workon the defence and attack ifthe side will make hay at theglobal championship inTurkey.

“I may have beendisappointed at the inabilityof the team to defend theirtitle but the good thing isthat they qualified for theWorld Cup. The coacheshave few period to work onthe lapses noted at the AYCbefore the start of the WorldCup.

“Once the team’s defenceand attack are thoroughlytouched and able to blend,play as a team as well asconvert chances at goalthey’ll excel at the WorldCup,” he said.

Flying Eagles are mostlikely to play in the WorldCup Group B or D as AYClosers’ winners or fourth-placed team.

Group B has the likes ofCuba, Korea Republic, CAFsecond runners up andPortugal while Group D areMexico, Greece, Paraguayand CAF fourth-placed side.

winner in Spain’s 1-0 victoryover France on Tuesday thatgave the world championscontrol of their qualifyinggroup for the World Cup.

Barcelona coach TitoVilanova returned homeearlier this week from afterspending 10 weeks in theUnited States undergoingtreatment for a throat tumor.The club said he will graduallyrecover his day-to-day duties,but it appears assistant Jordi

Roura will be in charge atBalaidos Stadium.

Barcelona has combinedelimination by Madrid in theCopa del Rey with a historiccomeback against AC Milan inthe Champions League withVilanova gone.

“We needed to get him back,”Tello said. “His absence wasnoticed because the manager isalways important. While hewas gone we remained unitedand that was key.”

Lionel Messi

Manchester City managerRoberto Mancini threw in thetowel for his club’s PremierLeague title challenge yesterday,saying the motivation for therest of the season was to keepthe teams below them at a safedistance.

Defeat to Everton in their lastPremier League outing left Citytrailing leaders ManchesterUnited by 15 points with ninegames remaining.

United have shown no signsof wilting under the pressure ofwresting the English title backfrom their near neighbours andhave won their last six leaguematches.

“It’s over but this doesn’tchange anything because weshould do our best from now tothe end,” Mancini toldreporters.

“Every top team, when theycan’t win a title, should still tryto play well and win all theirgames.”

Mancini made the sameassessment last season whenCity trailed United by eightpoints with six games to gobefore they rallied to snatch the

title on the final day on goaldifference.

“This is different to lastseason,” Mancini added. “I don’tknow how we will finish thisseason, because we haveChelsea four points behind usand Tottenham five pointsbehind.

“We have nine games left andfor this reason it’s important wekeep working hard and well.”

A seemingly crucial part ofCity’s decline in recent weekshas been the absence of captainand defender Vincent Kompanywho has been out with a calfinjury since January 26.

In that period, City havedropped 10 points, losing twiceand drawing twice, to furthercement United’s lead at the topof the table.

Kompany made his return toaction with Belgium in a WorldCup qualifier on Tuesday, adecision that annoyed Manciniwho had carefully nurtured thedefender back to fitness over thelast two months.

“He didn’t play for us for 60days and then he went to playfor the Belgium team,”Mancini

said.“I did not agree with this. I

think sometimes somemanagers of national teamsshould understand thesituation.

“This player plays for the club,and the club, every month, payhis salary. I don’t know if he isokay or not. One week beforethe international break he wasnot fit to play for us.”

Roberto Mancini

National Accord, Monday April 1, 2013,

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Monday, April 1, 2013

QUOTE

The University of NigeriaLiterature 301 (African Fiction)Class was weeks late in starting

for the 1980/81 academic year. On thefourth week, the students had gatheredas usual even before the class was dueto begin. Then five minutes after thetime, a large ash-coloured MercuryMonarch car parked beside the class.A man of middle height in a brown safarisuit and with a deeply creased and veryserious face but erect body walked intothe class.

He greeted the class and went straightto perch at the edge of the table,disdaining the chair – and waited forthe murmur his entry had elicited todie down. It didn’t. Two minutes laterhe cleared his throat, went to the blackboard and began to write even as hespoke: “my name is…” and the classroared: C-H-I-N-U-A A-C-H-E-B-E!!!.

He shook his head ever so slightly,like somebody who had gotten used tosuch antics, nay adulation, andreminded the class that other studentswere also taking lectures in othersections of the Ansah Building whichthe English Department shared withEconomics. Then he apologized forhaving not been in the country foralmost a month, making the studentsto lose several lectures. He explainedthat such international engagementswere making more demands on his timeand he had decided to do somethingabout his having to struggle to meet upwith his lectures. With that he hadhinted us that that we would be his lastclass in Nigeria … but that master ofunderstatement did not make it thatclear.

He asked if we had all bought the longlist of recommended textbooks, and headded another long list; the class askedif we could ever have the time to treatall of them. No, he spoke ever so softly,so softly that you sometimes had tostrive to hear him, saying that ourstudies would neither begin nor end inthe classroom. “You have to go beyondthe official list of books. The world isyour stage”, he announced: “reach outand take it. Tackle it, subdue it. I’m justyour guide. Soon, you’ll forget me andopen your wings wide and fly.”

Achebe was ever patient; nevershouting at any student; not even when

“The inability of those inpower to still the voices oftheir own consciences isthe great force leading tochange.”

– Kenneth Kaunda

ACHEBE: TheNovelist as Teacher

discussion. The class went on smoothlyuntil somebody asked Achebe themeaning of the word “Occident” (fromKane’s phrase:”The morning of theOccident in Africa was couched incrimson for those who landed on ourshores were white and mad”. Achebewent back to his seat, (the table’s edgereally) then asked the student to standup, and then roared: “what is yourdictionary for”. This is “terrible”(hisfavourite word for describing a bad

would spend hours on the novelist, hissociety, the time in which the novelistwrote and lastly, he would say “when Imet him”. It was clear from the time hespent on the East African society thathe held great score with the Mau Mauuprising, especially with itsorganization. The result was that Ngugibecame the class’ favourite author.Every discussion session was filled withNgugi and East Africa plus MejaNwangi’s “Carcass for Hounds”; it wasclear Achebe greatly admired “Gen”Dedan Kimathi. Once he admonishedthe class: You are asking too manyquestions about Ngugi, I may need toget him for you to answer the questionshimself. The class went delirious! Butwe took it as a joke – until Ngugi arrived!

Understandably, he made us takegreat interest too in South-Africanliterature. Even from 1980/81 session,the question will always resonatewhenever our former class membersgather: “Is we not people?” That camefrom Alex LaGuma’s “A Walk InTheNight”. To Achebe, that was all thatmatters: the humanity of the Africanwhich has been denied by others, ofcourse to us the rotten English of thatunschooled black ghetto dweller on therun from the apartheid policemenmade the question more memorable!Then talking about when he met NadineGordimer, he chuckled and said she wascrying because the “young hot heads”had refused to allow her to attend aconference of African authors inKenya. Achebe took her into the halland convinced the others that the ladyhad been writing against the apartheidsystem and she lived in Africa. “Weneed to swallow up all the whites inSouth Africa because from the Cape toCairo belongs to us by divine right, andknow that when South Africa becomesfree, some Whites will elect to remainthere”, he argued. Her tears dried upimmediately.

THE ACKPAGE

situation). Youare not readyfor the task athand if by nowyou have notfallen in lovewith yourdi ct i o na r y ” .Ngigi began writing while still a student.

From there began the class’ great loveaffair with Ngugi Wa Thiong’o . BeforeAchebe would teach any book, he

The late Prof. Chinua Achebe

No, he spoke ever so softly, so softlythat you sometimes had to strive tohear him, saying that our studieswould neither begin nor end in theclassroom.

they gave the worst of answers.Instead, he would say,”why not look atit this way?”

There was a particular student, TonyEjiochi, who loved to antagonizeAchebe, telling him often that he ratedthe late Nigerian children’s novelswriter, Cyprian Ekewnsi, to be Africa’s

best. Achebe thanked him for thestance, especially for his courage butwarned him that his style of writing,filing the entire essays with“phantasmagoria” and such high-flauting words just to make animpression, will not help him in makingthe world to appreciate Ekwensi themore. “I wonder if Ekwensi ever usedthe word phantasmagoria in any of hisbooks” concluded Achebe. From thatday,”Phantasmagoria” took over thestudent’s name. If I see him tomorrow,I’ll still call him “Phantasmagoria”

Then one day, Achebe flared up. Hehad asked the class to read a certainsection of the Senegalese diplomat,Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s “TheAmbiguous Adventure” aspreparation for the next class

Continued on Page 18

ABUJANOTES

TONY ELUEMUNOR(telumunor@yahoo.com)