Gone are the days when bombings were only witnessed on big movie screen. This is no longer the case. The best selling news in town is now about Boko Haram and its violent attacks on people and institution.

This security menace upsetting national stability and peace is becoming more rampant than ever, and if we continue to fold our hands there danger of everyone becoming a victim – the fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of security consciousness.

The need to for Nigerians to refortify their residential and business premises is no longer a luxury for a few, but a matter of necessity. The protection of lives and properties is no longer against theft by criminals, but against Boko Haram bombings.

Boko Haram is here, what are you going to do about it?

This is one of the pressing questions for Damog. The burden of ensuring the continuous safety and peace of mind of Nigerians is no longer one that should be left alone for government; it is a matter of national security and everyone, including you, must be involved in fighting this war.

In equipping you to survive  Boko Haram terror, here are 11 bomb prevention tips for the safety of public and private premises, and peoples lives. Don’t read and swallow please, ensure you use the social media tools to share these tips with family and friends.

This is our fight, we have the right to life; Boko Haram won’t deny us of that!

11 Bomb Prevention Tips

• Strictly implement the inspection procedures of all bags, knapsacks, boxes, merchandise, etc., that will enter the establishment or premises.
• Suspicious looking package, paper bags, etc. left alone should be cautiously scrutinized as possible bomb(s).
• When suspicious stuff are noted, don’t try to touch or inspect it. Instead, advice security personnel/employees to immediately contact the proper authorities.
• Be observant of people roaming around your area doing nothing. Vendors with tricycles/knapsacks/bags should be driven out, as they may be used as couriers of bombs.
• Advice the security to always observe people leaving behind bags/packages/boxes in the garbage cans/bins in the premises.
• Be observant of cars/motorcycle riding individuals who are suspiciously observing constantly the establishments.
• Be cautious in opening envelopes and packages sent to you by unknown individual or package with no return addresses.
• The greatest safeguard against the effects of bomb threats is to prevent entry of unauthorized persons into certain areas, whenever possible.
• Restricted entry and positive identification of staff and visitors can be significant factors in assessing the seriousness of any given threat.
• Develop a security plan and a bomb incident plan in preparation for such incident. The security plan deals with prevention and control of access to the building. The bomb incident plan provides detailed procedures to be implemented when a bomb is found or threatened.
• Get the involvement of the nearest police department, fire department, or local government agencies for any assistance in developing your security or bomb incident plans.

Be security conscious!

This article is written by ‘Kemi Bababusuyi is a security consultant, CEO Damog Guards (www.DamogNigeria.com), and edited by NAL staff editor.

By Yemi Ifegbuyi

What will the half-time show performance be like? Which brand commercial will steal the show? Most important, which team will get the next day headline as “World Champions?”

When Super Bowl 46 kicks off on Sunday, February 5, more than 170 million Football (American) fans, largely of U.S audience, are expected to watch the game between New York Giants and New England Patriots live on TV from Indianapolis.

With the internet now in its maturity stage, a significant percentage audience from other regions of the world, largely Europe, Asia and Latin America are expected to watch and follow minute-by-minute live report online, and trough local TV stations with broadcast rights.

But this won’t be the case in Africa, where the majority of Africans will be watching the bi-annual African Cup of Nations being hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Soccer (or football as it’s called in some parts of the world) is the number one sport in Africa. It’s the big deal, not American football.

Prince Amukamara and family at the 2011 NFL Draft. Photo Credit: SportsBata

Nevertheless, while African sport enthusiasts will be cheering their teams on Sunday at the African Cup of Nations, four Nigerians will be on duty for their NFL teams – New York Giants’ Osi Umenyiora, Tony Ugoh, and Prince Amukamara, and New England Patriots’ James Ihedigbo. These are the “Nigerian connection” at Super Bowl 46.

Prince, 23, the youngest among the four Nigerians was drafted by Giants in 2011. For the rookie cornerback, having the opportunity to play the prestigious NFL final, with more than a 50 percent chance of winning is “definitely humbling,” Amukamara told the media. The Super Bowl is a life time opportunity that has eluded some of the best football players in NFL history.

The presence of the Nigerian quartet is a proud moment for Africans, particularly Nigerians living in North-America, some of whom have become football super fans as a result of many years of living abroad. For some, football is more than a game, it is part of a larger process of social adaptation required to be fully integrated into the nuances of a new culture, far away from their home country.

On Sunday, a good number of Nigerians (just like many other fans) will endeavour to leave behind their ever busy work shifts, businesses and projects for some we-time with family and friends.

In a typical Nigerian family setting, you can be assured that not everyone cares for football. A Super Bowl house party is also a great time to compare the two sports that remain locked in the battle for identity supremacy – what do we call it, football or soccer? Whereas soccer is highly regarded as a beautiful game (the passing, dribbling, kicking and the display creative physical abilities), American football is known for its ruggedness, toughness and speed. Such indept dialogue will occasionally be interrupted by political satire and advocacy on issues in Nigeria.

James Ihedigbo(L), Osi Umenyiora (M) and Tony Ugoh (R)

Lately there has been a steady increase in the number of Nigerian-American football players in the NFL. This is not surprising considering the population of Nigerians that live in the United States and what some will argue as the Nigerian tenacity and strong appetite for success.

The U.S is believed to have the biggest population of Nigerians living outside Nigeria. A sizable population of Nigerian communities can be found in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Texas and Georgia.

Regardless of which side the god of football decided to smile upon on Sun-day, the Giants or the Patriots, clearly, at least a Nigerian name will be specially crafted in gold as champion of Super Bowl 46 – the biggest one-day sport festive on earth.

Yemi Ifegbuyi is a senior editorialist and director of operations for SBG media, publisher of nigeriansbaroadlive.com. He is also a strategic communications consultant on politics and business development, with special interest in North-America, Asia and sub-Sahara Africa. Follow him on Twitter: @tweetyemi

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (M), National President Joint National Association of persons with disabilities (JONAPWD) Barrister Danlami Bashir, SEC-Gen JONAPWD Mr. Dandison Nwankpa Hart, and Media Consultant for JONAPWD Mr. Chike Okgwu and delegations during a courtesy visit to the office of the Coordinating Minister of the Economic Team on Monday in Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE.

Abuja – Twenty percent of the 370,000 jobs that will be created nationwide this year under the public works programme of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Scheme (SURE) will go to vulnerable groups including persons living with disabilities.

Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this at an interactive forum with the leadership of the Joint National Association of Persons Living with Disabilities (JONAPWD), in Abuja, on Tuesday led by National President, Mr Danlami Basharu.

The initiative is a product of President Goodluck Jonathan’s focus on empowering all willing and able Nigerians to contribute their quota to growing the country’s economy.

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (R) and National President Joint National Association of persons with disabilities (JONAPWD), Barrister Danlami Bashir in Abuja. PHOTO; SUNDAY AGHAEZE.

The Minister on Monday directed the national coordinator of public works under SURE to immediately incorporate persons living with disabilities into his programme and furnish her with progress report before a follow-up forum gets underway in six months time.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala promised to take up the implementation of aspects of the Disabilities Act with the relevant authorities to ensure that persons living with disabilities are properly integrated into the SURE Scheme in response to requests presented by the association.

“By incorporating you into the SURE Programme, nobody is doing you a favour. It is in the best interest of this country that everybody gets an opportunity to contribute to its development and the society loses by excluding you or any other segment”, the Minister told the delegations.

Recalling the example of former U.S. president Frederick D Roosevelt, the only American President to occupy White House as a person living with disability, Dr Okonjo-Iweala described his example as an “eloquent lesson” of the benefits that society stands to gain if people living with disabilities are given a chance.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala praised persons living with disabilities in Nigeria for their resilience in the face of enormous odd, adding that considering the difficulties encountered by persons living without disabilities, what some Nigerians living with disabilities have achieved so far can only be described as awesome and amazing.

She paid special tribute to the Governor of Nasarawa, Alhaji Umaru Tanko Al-Makura State and a member representing Dutse Constituency in the Jigawa State House of Assembly Hon Adamu Shu’aibu Jigawar-Tsada for proving through their victory at the polls that physical disability is no barrier to what a person can achieve; she described members of the association as representing “one of the most inspiring segments of the Nigerian community.”

The Minister also promised to pass on to the appropriate quarters the request of the association for disability-friendly Mass Transit bus scheme run by persons with disabilities, through the Association as a way to ease their transportation problems and provide them employment.

NR source: Paul C Nwabuikwu Senior Special Assistant to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance.

Nigeria's Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (L), International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde (C) and Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at a joint press conference on December 20, 2011 in Lagos, Nigeria. PC Getty Image

By F. William Engdahl

The Geopolitical Stakes in Nigeria: The Curious Role of the IMF

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, is from all evidence being systematically thrown into chaos and a state of civil war. The recent surprise decision by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to abruptly lift subsidies on imported gasoline and other fuel has a far more sinister background than mere corruption and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) is playing a key role. China appears to be the likely loser along with Nigeria’s population.

The recent strikes protesting the government’s abrupt elimination of gasoline and other fuel subsidies, that brought Nigeria briefly to a standstill, came as a surprise to most in the country. Months earlier President Jonathan had promised the major trade union organizations that he would conduct a gradual four-stage lifting of the subsidy to ease the economic burden. Instead, without warning he announced an immediate full removal of subsidies effective January 1, 2012. It was “shock therapy” to put it mildly.

Nigeria today is one of the world’s most important producers of light, sweet crude oil—the same high quality crude oil that Libya and the British North Sea produce. The country is showing every indication of spiraling downward into deep disorder. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States and twelfth largest oil producer in the world on a par with Kuwait and just behind Venezuela with production exceeding two million barrels a day.

The curious timing of IMF subsidy demand
Despite its oil riches, Nigeria remains one of Africa’s poorest countries. The known oilfields are concentrated around the vast Niger Delta roughly between Port Harcourt and extending in the direction of the capital Lagos, with large new finds being developed all along the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria’s oil is exploited and largely exported by the Anglo-American giants—Shell, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco. Italy’s Agip also has a presence and most recently, to no one’s surprise, the Chinese state oil companies began seeking major exploration and oil infrastructure agreements with the Lagos government.

Ironically, despite the fact that Nigeria has abundant oil to earn dollar export revenue to build its domestic infrastructure, government policy has deliberately let its domestic oil refining capacity fall into ruin. The consequence has been that most of the gasoline and other refined petroleum products used to drive transportation and industry, has to be imported, despite the country’s abundant oil. In order to shield the population from the high import costs of gasoline and other refined fuels, the central government has subsidized prices.

Until January 1, 2012, that is. That was the day when, without advance warning President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan announced immediate removal of all fuel subsidies. Prices for gasoline shot up almost threefold in hours from 65 naira (35 cents of a dollar) a liter to 150 naira (93 cents). The impact rippled across the economy to everything including prices of grains and vegetables.

In justifying the move, Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi insisted that “The monies will be used in provision of social amenities and infrastructural development that will benefit Nigerians more and save the country from economic rift.” President Goodluck Jonathan says he is phasing out the subsidy as a part of a move to “clean up the Nigerian government.” If so how he plans to proceed is anything but apparent.
The huge unexpected price hike for domestic fuel triggered nationwide protests that threatened to bring the economy to a halt by mid-January. The president deftly took the wind out of protester sails by announcing a partial rollback in prices, still leaving prices effectively double that of December. The trade union federation immediately called off the protests. Then, revealingly, Goodluck Jonathan’s government ordered the military to take to the streets to “keep order” and de facto prevent new protests. All that took place during one of the bloodiest waves of bombings and murder rampages by the terrorist Boko Haram sect creating a climate of extreme chaos.

The smoking gun of the IMF
What has been buried from international accounts of the unrest is the explicit role the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) played in the situation. With suspicious timing IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was in Nigeria days before the abrupt subsidy decision of President Jonathan.  By all accounts, the IMF and the Nigerian government have been careful this time not to be blatant about openly announcing demands to ends subsidies as they were in Tunisia before food protests became the trigger for that country’s Twitter putsch in 2011.
During her visit to Nigeria Lagarde said President Jonathan’s ’Transformation Agenda’ for deregulation “is an agenda for Nigeria, driven by Nigerians. The IMF is here to support you and be a better partner for you.” [6] Few Nigerians were convinced. On December 29 Reuters wrote, “The IMF has urged countries across West and Central Africa to cut fuel subsidies, which they say are not effective in directly aiding the poor, but do promote corruption and smuggling. The past months have seen governments in Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon and Chad moving to cut state subsidies on fuel.”
Further confirming the role US and IMF pressure on the Nigerian government played, Jeffery Sachs, Special Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, during a meeting with President Jonathan in Nigeria in early January days after the subsidy decision, Sachs declared Jonathan’s decision to withdraw petroleum subsidy “a bold and correct policy.”
Sachs, a former Harvard economics professor became notorious during the early 1990’s for prescribing IMF “shock therapy” for Poland, Russia, Ukraine and other former communist states which opened invaluable state assets for de facto plundering by dollar-rich western multinationals.

Making the sudden decision to end the domestic fuel subsidy even more suspicious is the manner in which Washington and the IMF are putting pressure on only select countries to end subsidies. Nigeria, whose oil today sells for the equivalent of $1 a liter or roughly $3.78 a US gallon, is far from cheap. Brunei, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia all offer their petrol very cheap to their people. The Saudis sell their oil at 17 cents, Kuwait at 22 cents. [10] In the US gasoline averages 89 cents a liter.

That means the IMF and Washington have forced one of the poorest economies in Africa to impose a huge tax on its citizens on the implausible argument it will help eliminate corruption in the state petroleum sector. The IMF knows well that the elimination of subsidies will do nothing about corruption in high places.

Were the IMF and World Bank genuinely concerned with the health of the domestic Nigerian economy, they would have provided support for rebuilding and expanding a domestic oil refinery industry that has been let to rot so that the country need no longer import refined fuels using precious state budget resources to do so. The easiest way to do that would be to expedite a two-year-old deal between China and the Nigerian government to invest some $28 billion in massive expansion of the oil refinery sector to eliminate need for importing foreign gasoline and other refined products.

Quite the opposite—the criminal cabal inside NNPC and the Government making huge profits on the old subsidy system are suddenly making double and potentially triple more to maintain the old corrupt import system, and, of course, to sabotage Chinese refinery construction that could put an end to their gravy train.

Cutting their nose to spite the face…
Rather than benefit ordinary Nigerians as the IMF proclaims to want, the elimination of the subsidies has further pauperized the 90 per cent living on less than $2 a day, according to Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Nigerian Central Bank governor. [12] An estimated 40 million Nigerians are unemployed in the country of 148 million.

Because transport costs are a significant factor in delivery of food to the cities, food price inflation has soared along with costs of public transportation for the majority of poorer Nigerians. According to the Nigerian Leadership Sunday, “prices of commodities which shot up as a fallout of the fuel pump price increase have refused to come down.” Everything from street vegetable sellers to carwashes to roadside photographers are feeling the shock of the rise in fuel prices. Unemployment is rising as small businesses fold.

The argument of the IMF and the Jonathan Administration is that by freeing fuel prices, funds would be available to more social services and rebuild Nigeria’s “infrastructure.” Both the IMF and the Government know it would have been far more economically viable to replace the current corrupt system of importing refined gasoline and fuels with investing in rebuilding Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity.
Son Gyoh of the Nigerian Awareness for Development organization stated, “Would it not be more expedient to pressure government to service the refineries to full production capacity given the implications on overhead and competitiveness for local industries?”

Gyoh pointed to the source of the problem: “Why have successive governments left the refineries in a state of disrepair while spending huge on subsidy? Is there any chance that the savings from subsidy withdrawal will go directly into rehabilitating the refineries? Does deregulation imply NNPC will no longer operate a monopoly in importation of refined petroleum product or is this lobby a self-serving lifeline to continue its monopoly? ” He concludes, “In any case, there is good reason to doubt subsidy removal will solve the fuel scarcity problem as the cabal will only regroup to change tactics, a fact Nigerians are only too aware of.”

After Nigeria partly nationalized its oil sector in the late 1970’s, they also took control of Shell Oil’s Port Harcourt I refinery. In 1989 Port Harcourt II refinery was built. Both refineries fell into serious disrepair after 1994 when the Abacha military dictatorship cut the “take” of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) from domestic sale of refined oil products such as gasoline from 84% to 22%. That caused a cash crisis for NNPC and a halt to refinery maintenance. Today only one of four refineries operates at all.

What developed since was a system of NNPC importing foreign gasoline and other refined products for Nigeria’s domestic needs, naturally at a far more expensive cost. The price subsidies were to relieve that higher import cost, hardly a sensible solution but a very lucrative one for those corrupt elements in the state and private sector making a killing, literally, off the import process.

NNPC criminal enterprise
The IMF is well aware of the real cause of Nigeria’s fuel industry problems. A Nigerian legislative committee examining the sources of the industry’s problems recently released a report documenting that at least $4 billion annually is taken from taxpayers in fuel industry corruption with the state Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) at the center. According to the commission, “every day, fuel importers drop off 59 million liters of fuel. The country consumes 35 million liters daily. That leaves 24 million liters of oil available for smugglers to export, paid for by government fuel subsidies. This costs the Nigerian people roughly $4 billion yearly, according to Reuters.”

The Nigerian government has said that the 7.5 billion dollars spent yearly on fuel subsidies could be used to provide desperately needed infrastructure. But they omit any mention of the rampant siphoning off of $4 billion of oil by black market smugglers, reportedly with connivance of high NNPC government officials, to sell to neighboring countries at a hefty profit. The refined imported fuel is reportedly smuggled into neighboring countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger where petrol prices are far higher, according to Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Deputy Governor of Kano State.

China as IMF target?
One major geopolitical factor that is generally ignored in recent discussion of Nigerian oil politics is the growing role of China in the country. In May 2010 only days after President Jonathan was sworn in, China signed an impressive $28.5 billion deal with his government to build three new refineries, something that in no way fit into the plans of either the IMF or of Washington or of the Anglo-American oil majors.

China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) signed the deal to build three oil refineries with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in the biggest deal China has made with Africa. Shehu Ladan, head of NNPC, said at the signing ceremony that the added refineries would reduce the $10 billion spent annually on imported refined products. As of January 2012 the three Chinese refinery projects were still in the planning stage, reportedly blocked by the powerful vested interests gaining from the existing corrupt import system.

A report in China Daily last November quoted Nigeria’s Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga, the minister of trade and investment that Nigeria was seeking added Chinese investors for its energy, mining and agribusiness industries. Last September on a visit to Beijing, Nigeria central bank governor Lamido Sanusi announced his country planned to invest 5 percent to 10 percent of its foreign exchange reserves in China’s currency, the renminbi (RMB) or yuan, noting that he sees the yuan becoming reserve currency. In 2010 China’s loans and exports to Nigeria exceeded $7 billion, while Nigeria exported $1 billion of crude oil, Sanusi stated.

Until now Nigeria has held some 79% of her foreign currency reserves in dollars, the rest in Euro or Sterling, all of which look dicey given their financial and debt problems. The move of a major oil producer away from dollars, added to similar moves recently by India, Japan, Russia, Iran and others, augurs bad news for the continued role of the dollar as dominant world reserve currency. [22] Clearly some in Washington would not be happy with that.
The Chinese are also bidding to get a direct stake in Nigeria’s rich oil reserves, until now an Anglo-American domain. In July 2010, China’s CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) won four prospective oil blocks – two in the Niger Delta and two in the frontier Chad Basin – with plans to become core investor in the Kaduna refinery, and construction of a double track Lagos-Kano railway. [23] As well China’s oil company, CNOOC Ltd has a major offshore production area in Nigeria.

The IMF and Washington pressure to lift subsidies on imported fuels is at this point in question as is the future of China in Nigeria’s energy industry. Clear is that lifting subsidies in no way will benefit Nigerians. More alarming in this context is the orchestration of a major new wave of terror killings and bombings by the mysterious and suspiciously well-armed Boko Haram. This we will look at next in the context of Nigeria’s recent transformation into a major narcotics hub.

* Engdahl is a US-German author and analyst of geopolitical and economic issues. His books include A Century of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (2011, republished in a new edition) and Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century (2010).

———–
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect  NAL’s editorial policy and or position . 

Girl, Masi, Arusha, Tanzania (c) M. Hallahan/Sumitomo Chemical-Olyset Net. Photo credit: RCS

PRESS RELEASE: 30 January 2012 – Five African teenagers have been awarded top prizes in the ‘Me and My Net’ Competition, organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Awarded from more than 2000 entries, Eugene Musinguzi, 15, from Kampala, won First Prize in the Get Creative! category for his comic strip story about a superhero, Netman, saving a young boy from malaria. Awards were also given for the best entries from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. The winning entries can be seen online at www.meandmy.net.

Young people from 25 Commonwealth countries participated in the competition which was launched to provide young people with a way to share their attitudes towards, and awareness of, malaria. Entrants were invited to submit creative ways of encouraging their peers to use bed nets correctly. Information from the entries will be used to help shape future malaria education campaigns.

Adam Flynn, Sumitomo Chemical, was one of the competition judges. He said: “First and foremost, I was struck by the sheer quality of the entries, many of which contained the entrants’ personal experiences of malaria which so obviously shaped the pictures, stories, photos and heart-felt essays. Perhaps more importantly I was greatly encouraged by the level of awareness and understanding of malaria and how it could impact on their futures.”

The top prize of a trip to London for Commonwealth Day was awarded to fifteen year old Siya Kulkarni, from India.

Me and My Net is the Royal Commonwealth Society’s malaria education initiative, supported by Sumitomo Chemical’s Olyset® Net. The Competition ran from April to October 2011, with 180 schools taking part from around the Commonwealth.

The Royal Commonwealth Society’s 2012 Young Commonwealth Competitions are now open, with the theme Connecting Cultures. To mark HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this year, all essay, photo and film entries will become part of the Jubilee Time Capsule, an online people’s history of the last sixty years. Find out more at www.thercs.org/youth/competitions.

ME AND MY NET COMPETITION 2011 List of Winners

Overall Me and My Net Winner: Siya Kulkarni, 15, Pune, India

Category Prizes
Get Writing! First Prize: Mati Ur-Rehman, 16, New Multan, Pakistan

Get Drawing! Get Photographing! First Prize: Purwa Sabih, 16, Fazaia International College, Islamabad, Pakistan

Get Creative! First Prize: Eugene Musinguzi, 15, St Kizito Secondary School, Kampala, Uganda

Country Awards
Ghana Award: Sedinam Nana Ama Worlano, 16, SOS-Hermann Gmenier International College, Tema

Kenya Award: Ben Spybey, 14, Nairobi

Nigeria Award: Lola Yusuf-Aliyu, 15, Thomas Adewumi International College, Omu-Aran

Tanzania Award: Happy E. Mswani, 16, Mpitimbi Secondary School, Songea

For the full list of award and certificate winners, visit: www.meandmy.net/competition/winners

The finalists were judged by: John Apea, Ghanaian actor and filmmaker; Sarah Kline, Executive Director, Malaria No More UK; and Adam Flynn, Sales and Marketing Manager, Global Vector Control, Sumitomo Chemical UK

The Royal Commonwealth Society: Founded in 1868, the RCS conducts a range of events and activities aimed at promoting international understanding. Its educational, youth and cultural programmes include one of the world’s oldest and largest schools essay competitions, and an innovative international youth leadership programme. HM Queen Elizabeth II is Patron and Peter Kellner is Chairman. Headquartered at the Commonwealth Club in London, the RCS has some 4000 members in the UK and a presence in 40 Commonwealth countries through a network of branches and Commonwealth societies. The RCS is a registered charity in England & Wales (226748). See www.thercs.org.

Olyset Net: Sumitomo Chemical’s award-winning Olyset® Net is a proven, effective tool in the fight against malaria. Olyset Net works by preventing Anopheles mosquitoes from biting people, and thus reduces the transmission of malaria. Olyset Net is fully recommended by the World Health Organization and is tough, durable and wash-resistant. Insecticide is incorporated within the net’s polyethylene fibres during manufacture, for slow release over a sustained period of time. Olyset Nets never need re-treatment with insecticide and are guaranteed to be effective for a minimum of five years. For this reason, Olyset is a more cost effective long-lasting net than polyester alternatives. See www.olyset.net.

The Commonwealth: The modern Commonwealth was established with 8 members in 1949. In 2012, it has 54 members with a total population of nearly 2 billion. It is an association of governments and peoples, built around shared language, institutions, challenges, aspirations and values. The Commonwealth promotes democracy, development, and diversity within its member countries and across the world.

Contacts:
For all media enquiries, please contact Meera Chindooroy on +44 (0) 20 7766 9236 /
meera.chindooroy@thercs.org

AP – A federal judge in Nigeria on Monday sentenced to death the feared right-hand man to Nigeria’s former military dictator over the 1996 killing of an opposition candidate’s wife.

Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha sat without expression, slowly shaking his head “no,” as the high court judge ordered him to be hanged over the killing of Kudirat Abiola. His coconspirator Lateef Shofolahan received the same sentence after the two men were found guilty of murder and conspiracy charges. Shofolahan was described by the court as a trusted employee of the Abiola family who ultimately betrayed them for money and power.

Al-Mustapha was found guilty of ordering a security agent to kill the wife of Moshood Abiola, a businessman widely believed to be the winner of an annulled 1993 presidential poll in Nigeria. Al-Mustapha denied taking part in the 1996 machine-gun killing in Lagos, saying he was tortured into a false confession.

Al-Mustapha served as the chief security officer to Gen. Sani Abacha, a paranoid military ruler who stole billions from the oil-rich nation while brutally suppressing dissent.

Abiola was imprisoned by the dictator at the time of his wife’s death, and died in prison a month after Gen. Abacha’s own death as the nation struggled toward democracy.

Judge Mojisola Dada, though speaking in a hushed tone over the several hours it took to read her judgment Monday in the stifling hot courtroom, barely controlled her rage over the killings. Dada described Al-Mustapha as a “venomous beast” and Shofolahan as a Judas who “sold his master for 30 pieces of silver.”

“I think it is amazing that those who are most willing to shed the blood of others are the ones always scared of death,” Dada said when handing down the sentence.

Lead defense lawyer Olalekan Ojo said both men would appeal their sentences and file for stays of execution. He also suggested the judge showed bias by ignoring the contradictions in the prosecution’s case.

The daughter of the two slain democratic activists, Hafsat Abiola, said the verdict came as a surprise after previous trials ended without convictions. Nigerian authorities still view Al-Mustapha as a security threat, holding him in Lagos’ maximum-security Kirikiri prison. In 2004, officials claimed he planned to have someone shoot down a helicopter carrying then-President Olusegun Obasanjo with a Stinger missile. He’s also escaped convictions in other trials.

“I feel very relieved that over 15 years after my mother was assassinated that the people who killed her have been sentenced to death,” Hafsat Abiola told The Associated Press. “It is not so much you want people to believe in the death penalty, but in a country with so much abuse of power and state impunity, we need to make sure people who commit crimes have to pay for it.”

Al-Mustapha, a Hausa from the country’s north, still receives support from the Muslim populace there, highlighting Nigeria’s religious divisions. His recent claims in court also have been driving a further wedge, as he has offered a government memorandum that says hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on visitors to Abacha’s palace.

Al-Mustapha and his family claim the government and powerful politicians want him dead. But they also highlight the long unease between Nigeria’s north and south, where divisions largely fall along religious lines. Tens of thousands have died in religious and ethnic rioting since the nation embraced democracy in 1999.

As Al-Mustapha left the court Monday afternoon, some supporters in the crowd cheered for him and shouted “God is great” as he stood at the top of a courthouse staircase. He smiled and waved to those below, looking like a politician, not a man sentenced minutes earlier to death.

The newly commissioned Chinese-funded African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo Credit: African Union

BY NAL newswire

As China welcomes the Year of the Dragon to celebrate its traditional new year, far from its shore, the world’s newest super power nation scores a major diplomatic point with the opening of the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Standing at 100 meter height and overseeing Ethiopia capital city, the new African Union Conference Centre, which construction started three years ago costs 1billion Chinese Yuan ($200 million) and was entirely funded by China.

Symbolically, golden statue of foremost promoter of pan-Africanism Kwame Nkrumah was unveiled and the foundation stone for the African Union Human Rights Memorial laid amidst modest cultural ceremony.

Present at the inauguration of the AU headquarters were Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife and other African countries leaders.

“Our dream came true and we are now overlooking a modern architectural jewel symbolising the historical relations between China and our continent” said Dr Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC).

China’s President representative Jia Qinglin, Chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) affirms the Chinese government interest in supporting and strengthening its relationship with Africa.

According to Qinglin, China presently has 2000 registered companies in different regions of the continent, and investment valued at $150 billion.

Some experts have claimed that the quest for a secure market for industrial raw resources and finished goods to satisfy China’s economic appetite is the sole reason for the once Communist State super-philanthropic gestures across Africa, and not necessarily to promote genuine development nor to advance human rights in the troubled continent.

“Many people think that China is just emerging on the scene to work with Africa,” says Erastus Mwencha, deputy Chairperson AUC. “China has been a friend of Africa from a long time. China worked with Africa to eliminate apartheid, colonialism and the support for Africa during the struggle for Independent.”

The African Union (AU), formerly known as the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established in 2002 with a vision for an “integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa,  driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in  global arena.”

Former Nigeria's military president General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida

By Femi Fani-Kayode

”I can go back to fight a war to keep this country together even at 71….Some people are saying that should anything happen to President Jonathan, forget about Nigeria and so on. I know those who are saying this. Yes, they are supporters of the President. But I know the President is sensible people so don’t waste your time saying that the world would come to an end if something happens to your son. Of course he is your son but he is our President. I have always respected these people but these things that they say amaze me. These are the same people that went to school, people who went to universities, people that are educated and people who have held positions of responsibility.

I have nothing but the deepest respect and affection for General Ibrahim Babangida and those that know me can attest to this. He is not only a great and profoundly good man that has sacrificed so much for our nation but he is also one of the very few truly detribalised leaders who genuinely and honestly loves Nigeria and who passionately believes that the interest of every Nigerian is better served if our country remains as one. I do not for one minute doubt General Babangida’s sincerity of purpose or his deep sense of patriotism. Anyone that can take a bullet to keep Nigeria one must always be given his due respect and honour. Yet despite my personal feelings and affection for the general I am afraid that, from an intellectual and political perspective, I have to respectfully and humbly disagree with him on this issue. I do not believe that there is any such thing as a ”Doctrine of Settled Issues” in our body politic and neither, in my view, is Nigeria as we know it today a sacrosanct, unbreakable or unchangeable union. It is trite that the only thing that is certain in the life of men and nations is change. Whether we like it or not change is like an irresistible tide and, when it’s time comes, it is like a moving train and a raging wind which crushes or blows away anyone or anything that stands in it’s way.

You either bend with it or you break. I am a student of history and it may interest those that subscribe to this rather arcane and anachronistic theory known as the ”Doctrine Of Settled Issues”  that Nigeria remains the only mega-nation and forced union of incompatibles that the British colonial masters cobbled together at the beginning of the 20th century that still remains together today. There were actually three in all and the other two, namely the Sudan and India, have broken into two and three pieces respectively over the years. Why should Nigeria be any different? More importantly why should we be told that Nigeria MUST be different? Would this have been so if there was oil in the north? Again when one considers the delightful and miraculous ”crumbling” of the almighty Soviet Union (another forced artificial union) or the breaking up of the old Yugoslavia and the emancipation and creation of numerous new countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe which came as a consequence of that magnificent change, I ask again, why should Nigeria be any different? The words of the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher are instructive here. In the September 2, 1991 edition of Newsweek she said, ”the lesson of this century is that countries put together artificially will fall apart. National identities will not be suppressed”.

Twenty years after these famous words were spoken we are beginning to witness their relevance and veracity in Nigeria. The right to self-determination and to forcefully resist what many feel is an internal colonial system is a legitimate and inalienable right of all free men and women. You cannot hold me down and keep me in your house on your own terms and deny me the right to be free or to say or do as I please. If you do not treat me fairly and if you continue to make me feel worthless and full of fear of your terror and ability to inflict violence on me and mine, then eventually, whether you like it or not, I will leave. No one signed their life or their future away to bondage and none of us subscribed to the view that decisions about our country and our future can and have been made by our past leaders and heroes and that they can no longer be changed or altered. I say that they can if the circumstances determine that this must be so. And if you do not give us our rights eventually we will exercise them by force and regardless of how you feel.

As much as I am amongst those that have criticised the Goodluck Jonathan administration forcefully, objectively and vigorously over some of their policies in the last few months let me make two things clear. Firstly my criticisms are borne out of my concern for our country and nothing else. I have nothing against Mr. President personally other than the fact that by not getting it right he is playing into the hands of the ”born to rule” northern cabal who believe that he does not have a right to be President simply because he is an Ijaw man. The overwhelming majority of the Hausa-Fulani intelligentsia and elite do NOT belong to this cabal and are indeed decent, law-abiding, rational and patriotic Nigerians. However there is a small, powerful and strategically-placed cabal that do espouse this Hitlerite philosophy and do believe that no southerner should have the right to rule in peace without being told what to do and without being teleguided and controlled by them. This small but strategically-placed group  have sworn to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan and we are now seeing the results of that threat. For the record let us just warn these ethnic supremacists that they must not misconstrue the position that some of us have taken when it comes to this government and it’s policies as an endorsement of their deeply conspiratorial and despicable ethnic agenda. I should also add that Jonathan must not die under any mysterious circumstances. If this were to happen there would be no Nigeria left afterwards and by the time it is all over they will know that it is only when you kill a madman that you will know that he has friends and family. The new Nigeria has no place and no room for those that believe in the ”born to rule” philosophy or those that subscribe to any form of Boko Harm or Taliban-style Islamic fundamentalism. We will not tolerate it, we will not bow to it and we will resist it with every fibre of our being.

I have said it before and I will say it again- if Nigeria is not a place that every ethnic nationality is regarded as being equal and is treated as such then let there be no more Nigeria. There is nothing that is sacrosanct about a forced union of incompatibles. If you are in a bad marriage you get out of it before you kill each other. The Lugardian ”poor husband of the north” cannot force the ”rich wife of the south” to remain in this unholy and iniquitous union for much longer unless the terms are right and unless there is equity and justice for all. The mistake we made in 1967 by not standing on Aburi will not be repeated. The days of the master/servant relationship that we have witnessed between the north and the south for 51 years of our national existence are long over and they shall never return again. This country is moving forward and she is not going back and if President Goodluck Jonathan can just get his act together and vigorously resist the hegemonist giants in the land he would have my full support and that of millions of others. This is the time for a new vision for our country. It is the time for new leaders who are ready to stand up and speak the truth about our precarious state of affairs and about the direction in which our nation must go. It is the time to talk about the convening of a Sovereign National Conference and to answer the Nationality Question. It is the time for courage. Let us not take our unity for granted or treat it as ”a given”. Nigeria must change, she must be restructured, she must be reformed and she must make every single ”Nigerian” believe that he or she can get to the top regardless of their nationality or faith.

On a final note permit me to point out the fact that it does not help when you have a northern Governor of Central Bank who seeks to create a subtle but clear intellectual justification for the existence and activities of Boko Haram by telling the Financial Times of London that ”there is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence. When you look at the figures and you look at the size of the population of the north you can see that there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions. Those states simply do not have enough money to meet their basic needs whilst some states have too much money”. The subliminal message and signals are clear to the discerning. Yet it does not stop there. Thisday newspaper (28th Jan. 2012) reported that that same individual said that ”attempts to redress historic grievances in Nigeria’s oil-rich south may inadvertently have helped create the conditions for the Islamic insurgency spreading from the impoverished north-eastern region of the country”. I am astounded by this contribution and having read it, it is now very clear to me that President Goodluck Jonathan was absolutely right when he told us that there were secret members and sympathisers of Boko Haram at the highest levels of his government. The Governor of Central Bank’s rationalisation and attempted justification of the shameful and unacceptable activities of the murderous Islamist sect Boko Haram are an eloquent testimony to that fact. Yet he is not alone. The northern Speaker of the Federal House added insult to injury by saying that Boko Haram should be ”forgiven” for their sins and called to the table for ”dialogue and negotiations”.

And this was just a day after the Kano bombings. Mr. President apparently took his advice because just a few days later he reached out to Boko Haram on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera, asked them to identify themselves and attempted to open a dialogue with them.  In return, and predictably in my view, he was rebuked, spurned, treated with contempt and disdain and told to ”repent and become a Muslim” before any form of dialogue could begin. So much for the advice, counsel and rationalisations of the ”insiders” and secret members of Boko Haram within our government. My advice to Mr. President is to identify these fifth columnists, name and shame them publically and weed them out of his government  before it is too late. The longer he waits the more dangerous it will be for him and for a united Nigeria. Let us pray for our country.

Liyel Imoke, Governor Cross River State.

Reuters – Nigeria’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday to remove five powerful state governors from office because their tenures should have expired last year, replacing them with the speakers of the house of assembly from the respective states.

The governors of Nigeria’s 36 states are among the most powerful politicians in Africa’s most populous nation, in some cases controlling budgets larger than other African countries.

The governors of Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Kogi, Adamawa and Sokoto all came into office in May 2007 but their four-year tenures were terminated by election tribunals because of “irregularities”. Fresh elections were conducted the following year, which they all won again.

They won a court order last year which allowed them to run for re-election in 2012 because they argued that their official four-year tenure did not begin until the re-run in 2008.

But this legal victory was challenged by the Independent National Electoral Commission with the Supreme Court, which ruled on Friday that the governors’ time in office ended in May 2011.

“To allow the governors seeking tenure elongation will allow a culture of impunity in the system,” Justice Walter Onnughen told the governor’s lawyers and public crowds in the gallery. He said it was a unanimous decision by the seven judges.

“Their tenure started from the day their first oath of office was administered … no person can remain in office more than the four years provided for by the constitution,” Onnughen said.

Governorship elections are due to take place in the five states on different dates this year and the current governors could run again for a second and final term. None were immediately available following the hearing.