Ebola Hits Liberian Presidency, Kills Minister’s Aide

Liberia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is also the seat of the Liberian presidency, has been hit by the deadly Ebola virus. According to a report from FrontPageAfrica.

On Monday, the Administrative Assistant to Foreign Minister Augustine Ngafuan reportedly died from what sources say is a suspected case of the deadly virus. Her husband, a staffer in the office of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is currently under quarantine, according to online news portal, FrontPageAfrica.

The names of the officials were withheld because the government has not officially notified the public about the cases, so close to the Liberian presidency. Minister Ngafuan’s office is two floors below the floor now being used as the President’s office, the online news portal stated.

The wife of the President’s office staffer reportedly died on Monday and may have contracted the virus from a sister, who had previously died. A praying woman who reportedly had sessions and laid hands on the sister of the deceased Administrative Assistant, has also died.

Sources within the Executive Mansion informed FrontPageAfrica Wednesday that both the deceased Administrative Assistant in Minister Ngafuan’s office and her husband had been told not to return to the office until after 21 days.

“They had not been coming to work for more than 21 days now,” the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter.

Minister Ngafuan is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia attending an Emergency Meeting of the African Union’s Executive Council on the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak.  Attempts to reach the minister and his press aide have been unsuccessful.

The AU members are recommending the urgent lifting of all travel bans imposed on countries affected by the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

The Ministry has been the seat of the presidency since 2006 when fire gutted the fourth floor during celebrations marking the 159th Independence Day celebrations in the presence of three West African leaders, who had come to witness the then newly-elected President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf switch on electricity to reach limited parts of the capital city.

South African forensic scientists brought in to probe the cause of the fire said it was an electrical fault. Following the fire outbreak at the Executive Mansion, the Government of Liberia announced a closure of the Mansion, and President Johnson-Sirleaf relocated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where the president has for the past eight years been performing official state functions.

The mansion was constructed in 1964 under the regime of the late Liberian President William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman by 2,000 workers, including about a fifth of Monrovia’s labour force, and 150 foreign technicians. The eight-storey Executive Mansion building, which costs US$20 million, has an atomic-bomb shelter, an underground swimming pool, a private chapel, a trophy room, a cinema, an emergency power plant, water supply and sewage system, among others.

The report comes just 24 hours after Defence Minister Brownie Samukai told the U.N. Security Council that the outbreak poses a “serious threat” to the war-torn nation’s very existence. Samukai’s words were echoed by the U.N. Secretary-General’s special representative Karin Landgren, who said Liberia is facing its gravest threat since its decade-long civil war ended in 2003. She deemed the outbreak a “latter-day plague” and its spread “merciless.”

Liberia is worst hit among the nations affected by the current Ebola epidemic with at least 1,200 recorded deaths. Over the past three weeks, the country has experienced a 68% bump in infections and the World Health Organization estimates the surge will continue to accelerate in coming weeks.

Humanitarian groups in the country have been complaining that there simply aren’t enough beds and suspected victims of Ebola are reportedly turned back to their communities or left waiting outside medical facilities, aggravating the risk of further contagion.

At least 160 health workers have been infected with the virus and 79 have died, in a nation that counted a paltry single doctor per 100,000 inhabitants at its onset. Landgren pointed out that the challenge also goes beyond the medical response.

“The enormous task of addressing Ebola has revealed persistent and profound institutional weaknesses, including in the security sector,” she said.

“As the demands pile on, the police face monumental challenges in planning and implementing large scale operations.”

Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $50 million on Wednesday to support emergency efforts to contain West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, which has already killed almost 2,300 people in the worst outbreak of the virus in history.

The U.S.-based philanthropic foundation said it would release funds immediately to U.N. agencies and international organisations to help them buy supplies and scale up the emergency response in affected countries.

It will also work with public and private sector partners to speed up to development of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating Ebola patients and preventing further spread of the haemorrhagic fever-causing virus.

“We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now and stop transmission of this deadly disease,” Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the Foundation’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show the Ebola outbreak, which began in March, has infected almost 4,300 people so far, killing more than half of them.

The deadly viral infection is raging in three countries – Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone – and has also spread into neighbouring Nigeria and Senegal.

The WHO said on Tuesday the Ebola death toll jumped by almost 200 in a single day to at least 2,296 and is already likely to be higher than that. It has previously warned that the epidemic is growing “exponentially” and there could be up to 20,000 cases in West Africa before it is brought to a halt.

Chris Elias, the Gates Foundation’s head of global development, said in a telephone interview the group would be assessing over coming days where funds could be best spent.

Some would go to the most acute and immediate needs, he said, and some would be put towards more longer-term research into treatments and ways of preventing future outbreaks.

“The spread of this disease has really happened because of the very weak health systems in these very poor countries,” he said. “We need to be thinking how we can build up those health services, how we train healthcare workers, and how we make sure they have the equipment they need to do their jobs.”

The Gates money comes after the British government and the Wellcome Trust medical charity last month pledged 6.5 million pounds ($10.8 mln) to speed up research on Ebola, a disease for which there is currently no licensed treatment or vaccine.

The WHO has backed the use of untested drugs, as long as conditions on consent are met, and is hoping for improved supplies of experimental medicines by the end of the year.

Britain’s minister for international development, Justine Greening, welcomed the Gates support, saying the “serious health, social and economic risks posed by one of the worst outbreaks of the disease require the entire international community to do more to assist”.

The Gates Foundation – set up by the billionaire founder of Microsoft Bill Gates to fight disease and poverty in poor countries – has already committed more than $10 million to fight the Ebola outbreak, including $5 million to the WHO for emergency operations and research and development assessments and $5 million to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to support efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

In its statement, the foundation said it would also give an extra $2 million immediately to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support incident management, treatment, and health care system strengthening.

POWER: Electricity tariff may increase by N26 as gas price hikes

The recent increase in the price of gas to power sector from $1.50 to $3.30 per metric cubic foot (MCF) may see a rise in the price of electricity tariff from N14 to N40 per kilowatt hour (pkh) for domestic consumers in the next tariff review.

The price may be far higher for industrial consumers who currently pay upwards of N25pkh depending on which customer category they belong, according to report from Leadership

According to industry analyst Dan Kunle, who is also a stakeholder in two of the privatised distribution companies (Discos), said: “If care is not taken, the reflective cost of the increase per kilowatt hour could be N40 and which domestic consumer will pay that in this country? If what we are paying currently for gas is $1.50 and consumers are paying about N14 and N25 depending on their class, by the time it is escalated to $3.30 what will be the price that domestic consumers will pay?

“Will the distributor be asked to pass the cost or will they be asked to take the cost and sell electricity at the old price?”

He noted that an increase in gas price is not the ultimate solution to gas supply challenges faced in the sector.

He explained that the lack of adequate law guiding gas exploration, processing and utilisation in the country is the major reason the sector is faced with the challenge.

He said: “The issue of gas supply is historical; there has been no law governing gas; the law provided only for oil exploration and mining, because as at that time gas was not yet an important commodity like this. A specific law was signed in respect to gas production and processing in 1999 when the decree for Bonny LNG was signed.

“The joint venture we have been operating is largely oil exploration and mining so the IOCs know that there is no exact legal framework that guides gas exploration processing and utilisation within the Nigerian economy, which is why they give excuses not to supply. So an executive order is needed from the president since the Petroleum Industry Bill is not yet ready.”

He maintained that the international oil companies would be more committed to gas supply obligations if they saw an enabling law or executive framework being pushed by government to advance the supply of gas, adding that the legal backing would also help them calculate the econometrics.

“For instance, if they know that they need to give 20 per cent of their production to domestic gas supply at an economic price because it is a social good, they will then know that they have 80 per cent left to sell at commercial price and make their money back,” he said.

He also suggested that government should grant incentives such as tax holiday, import and tax waivers to indigenous oil companies to encourage gas production.

Nigeria checking South African national as suspected Ebola case

Nigerian health authorities said on Thursday they were holding for Ebola testing a South African national in transit to her country because she was showing potential symptoms of the disease after working in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The South African woman, whose identity was not revealed, flew in to Lagos airport from Morocco. She was being treated as a suspected case and was being taken to Lagos’ Ebola treatment centre for tests to see whether she actually had the virus.

The traveller, who lives in Cape Town, filled out a health questionnaire on her arrival at Lagos in which she acknowledged suffering from diarrhea and vomiting, both possible symptoms of the Ebola hemorrhagic virus.

Around 2,300 people have died so far this year in the worst Ebola outbreak on record which has mostly affected Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It has also reached Nigeria and Senegal because of sick travellers “importing” the disease. Democratic Republic of Congo has a separate outbreak.

“This person has been in Guinea and Sierra Leone since April … she has symptoms,” Dr. Morenike Alex-Okoh, director of Port Health Services at Lagos airport, told Reuters. The testing process was likely to last a few days.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has instituted Ebola screening, including infra-red temperature scans and symptoms checks, at its airports and ports after a Liberian-American infected with the disease brought it to Lagos in July after flying from Liberia. His is one of seven deaths recorded so far out of 19 confirmed cases in Nigeria.

“Nigeria cannot afford another ‘importation’ (of Ebola),” said Dr. Aileen Marty, a professor of infectious diseases at Florida International University College of Medicine.

Marty is working with Nigerian health authorities, under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO), to maintain port of entry Ebola checks across the African oil producer.

She told Reuters the fact that the South African traveller displayed several Ebola-like symptoms and had been in the high-risk zone justified her being treated as a suspected case. But such symptoms are also present in other diseases, such as malaria and cholera, hence the need for a specific Ebola test.

Okorocha Can Fix Nigeria for APC – Oyegun

As Nigerians await the emergence of presidential candidates for the 2015 general election, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, has tipped the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, as one of those who possess the  ability to take Nigeria to a greater heights.
The chairman of the party who made the assertion yesterday at the inauguration of Imo State Liaison Office in Abuja, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has long lost focus and needed to be shown the way out in order to allow a party with fresh ideas to come on board.

Oyegun, while giving his opinion on the quality of leaders the party will put forward in the 2015 election, said though there were several others vying for presidency, Okorocha seems to be one of the most resourceful.

“He is obviously one of the most vital resource persons we have. We have several men vying for that position and I am proud to say that he is one of our most vital resource persons. He is obviously a man of vision. You can see that today. He has proved to us that he has rescued his state.  We need him to help us rescue Nigeria,” he said.

On the capacity of opposition to upstage the PDP in the next general elections, Oyegun said APC has all it takes to win the next presidential election.
According to him, the Imo State governor has the capabilities to transform his state within the short period has been in office, adding that the governor is one of the principal actors to draw up a development agenda, which the party intends to unfold in the weeks ahead.

He said APC was proud to be associated with Okoroacha, who is committed to rescuing the country from bad governance.

“You see people smiling and going about their businesses energetically. We know today that there are no more robberies in the state; we know that there is no case of kidnapping in the state.  We also know that today, the state is one of the most peaceful places for investment in this nation. He is one of those spearheading change in this country,” he said.
Oyegun said the APC is a conglomeration of men with experience, which has proven that it has answers to Nigeria’s problem through the transformation witnessed in states under its control.

On the hand, Oyegun said PDP has reached its zenith and no longer possessed the capability to implement policies and programmes that will uplift the lives of Nigerians.

“The APC is not at infancy stage. The APC brought together an agglomeration of experience deriving from the ACN, ANPP, CPC and APGA. The most visionary leader that APGA had is with us now. So the party was not born yesterday.

“We have put together the  experiences of these great four parties and we are ready for the battle. We are ready. We are telling the people that the PDP has reached its zenith. It has reached its maximum,” he said.

Speaking in same vein, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Silva, said Okorocha represents the true philosophy of change that Nigeria desires.
While addressing the gathering, Okorocha, said what the country needed at the moment was not an ethnic or religious bigot but somebody who can put food on the table of the common man and provide steady power supply as well as other needs of the people.

“There is nothing like Igbo President, there is nothing like Hausa President or Yoruba President. You only have a Nigerian President who may be from anywhere in the country, and also deemphasise these regional or tribal presidents.

“Like I said earlier, give us a man with vision irrespective of where he comes from; give us somebody who can create jobs; give u somebody who can put food on the table of the common man; give us somebody who can provide steady power supply. Let him come from anywhere, we need people who can fix Nigeria,” he said.

Okorocha said PDP had been in power for almost 15 years and nothing to show for it comparatively.
“This shows that they have done their best. Let us commend them for doing their best but they cannot do better than their best. The truth is there is need for a change so that we can get people who can do better.

“They have done their best but their best is not good enough and you cannot give what you don’t have. Even if you give PDP 100 years, there will be no power supply; there would be insecurity and joblessness. So that is why we are saying we want people who can fix Nigeria,” he added.

Kwankwaso: PDP Has Made a Laughing Stock of Ribadu

Kano State Governor, Alhaji Rabi’u Kwankwaso, yesterday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had made the former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, a laughing stock among PDP stakeholders in Adamawa State after the party dumped him in its recent gubernatorial primaries.

“After he left the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the PDP, his new party did not find him worthy of its gubernatorial ticket. I am sure the PDP stakeholders in Adamawa are now laughing at him. We sympathise with him.”

The governor disclosed this while receiving two awards from two non-governmental organisations, namely, APC Kwankwasiyya Amana, Bauchi State chapter and Nigeria 774 Kwankwasiyya Merger: Kwankwaso for President.

He, however, called on  the Adamawa electorate to think wisely and vote for the APC candidate in the forthcoming  gubernatorial election in the state considering the hardships caused to the state by the PDP central government.

The governor appealed to them to pay back good for good, urging them to dump the PDP and vote for the APC which is ready to bring about positive and realistic changes in the whole country.

“Anybody who voted for the  PDP, which within five years could not lead the nation rightly has deceived himself,” lamented the governor, pointing out that the APC had come up with a credible candidate in the person of Senator Muhammad Jibrila Bindaw, who can salvage the state.

He alleged that the state PDP chose a candidate whom most of their supporters see as incompetent, urging the people of the state to opt for the APC, describing it as the best party in Nigeria.

Kwankwaso also thanked the state APC stakeholders’ effort in mobilising people across the nation to support his presidential aspiration in the 2015 general election.

The governor said most of the people he met at the APC North-west rally in Sokoto told him that the message had reached them and they were in support of the aspiration.

He therefore, urged the party’s stakeholders to continue enlightening Nigerians until the APC wins the 2015 general election.
He also reiterated that he was still consulting on the 2015 presidential contest and would make his decision known to the public very soon.

THROWBACK: PH Water-Front Saga : We don’t want homelessness – Senator Sekibo

The plan to demolish water-fronts in Port Harcourt is not new. It first gained currency under the tenure of deposed governor Celestine Omehia. The government gave security reasons as one of the major factors behind the plan. The issue seemingly overheated the state. While this was on, the Supreme Court sacked the government and installed Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as governor.

One of the first steps he took when he came on board was to suspend the planned demolition, an action that was greeted with wild jubilation in all the water fronts in the state capital. Two years down the line the government is back with the threat to demolish the waterfronts otherwise referred to as slum settlements in the state capital. Security and the need to develop the area in tune with contemporary habitation standards have been thrown up as some of the driving forces behind the proposed action.

However, the Okrika Ijaw that claim ownership of most of these water fronts remains suspicious of government’s motives. In this interview with Jimitota Onoyume of Sweet crude, Chief James Tari Sekibo, a second republic Senator and Chairman, Okrika Divisional Council of Chiefs and Wakirikebese Council of Chiefs, an umbrella body of all Okrika people, he speaks extensively on the position of the Okrika people.

Occasionally during the interview he reads from what he claims are historical documents to support the position of his people.

Excerpt:
What is your stake in the proposed demolition of water fronts in Port Harcourt?
It is fairly a long story. Our stake started before 1913 when an agreement was signed with owners of areas that the colonial government wanted to acquire. This whole thing started with the discovery of coal in Enugu. And they wanted an outlet to export the coal from the country to overseas. They decided to establish a port and railway terminals. So the colonial masters came and spotted the present Port Harcourt municipality as the most suitable site for the said port to be established. And slightly up a little to be railway terminals, to start from Enugu down to Port Harcourt. So by 1913 an agreement was signed between the Okrika and the Ikwerre people.

Ikwerre this time refers only to the Diobu, Ikwerre, Orogbum, Orogbale, Oroije now called ogbunabali area. Compensation was paid to the communities. Precisely on 18 May 1913, that was when the agreement was signed by the deed between the Okrika people.

On 18 May, 1913 by deed between the chiefs and head men of Okrika Ijaw and Diobu communities for and on behalf of themselves and their people on the one hand and Sir Alexander George Boyle, the Deputy Governor of the colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria for and on behalf of his majesty, the King of England, the area presently known as Port Harcourt was acquired by the colonial authorities. This deed is registered as 16/211/7 (old series), Calabar, former kept at the lands registry, Lagos, later lands registry, Enugu but now in the lands registry, Port Harcourt.

The Okrika Ijaw towns and villages affected by this deed are namely, Biekiri, Abokirir, Belemaka, Akainkoroma, Azuabie, Abuloma, Toinpirima (present right wing of Marine base, Okrika water fronts and cementry waterfronts), Fiyenemika, Iyoyo Ama (present Rex Lawson waterfronts and Egbema waterfront) Atubokiki, Igbisikalama Ama  (present Baptist waterfront, Enugu waterfront, Tourist beach and Ibadan waterfront), Idango Ama (present left wing of Marine base, Koko polo sharing boundary with Amadi ama), Fimie, Amiejobodiema, Gbelabo Ama, (present Elechi beach, Abonnema wharf and Njemanze), Okuru town, Amadi town, Amango Ama (present NPA wharf, Witt and bush waterfront and Bundu waterfront) Okujagu, Kuroseidiema Ama (present Bille waterfront, Bonny water front, Nembe waterfront and Abuja estate waterfront) Eresofiari, Misiba, Duointa and Banisuka.

On the other hand, the Ikwerre communities affected by the deed are Diobu, Omoeme, Omoamasi, Omobiakani and Oginiba

Thereafter, the Ikwerres sought to set aside the deed of 1913 by filling a suit against the Attorney General. That suit was dismissed. Dissatisfied with the judgment of the lower court, the Ikwerres filed an appeal to the West Africa court of Appeal. On 9th June, 1952 the West Africa Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. This case is reported as Chief Joseph Wobo and nine others vs. the attorney general in 14 WACA 132

Again, Diobu dissatisfied with the judgment of West Africa court of Appeal, the Ikwerres appealed to the judicial committee of the Privy County in England. The appeal number is Privy Council Appeal NO. 18 of 1953. The Privy Council on the 30th day of October, 1956 dismissed the appeal.

In all the judgments the sanctity of the 1913 agreement was repeatedly affirmed and confirmed. However, on the 2nd of May, 1928 a supplemental agreement to the 1913 principal Port Harcourt agreement was signed between the Diobu Ikwerre, (specifically Abali and Ogbum Diobu) and the then Deputy Governor of the colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria, as contained in the written instrument number A 17 vol 1 of 2nd May, 1928 which varied the terms of the 1913 principal agreement from sale to payment of annual rent of five hundred pounds in perpetuity.

The Okrika Ijaw people who gave 53% of the Port Harcourt land in the 1913 agreement felt cheated. When they got to know about the variation as contained in the 1928 agreement and went to seek redress in court in suit no PHC/45m/76. The court ruled that since at least one other party to that agreement has been benefited by a revision of compensation payable, the plaintiffs ought in equity to be treated in the same manner. Accordingly, the Okrika Ijaw and the Okrika Ijaw Port Harcourt aborigines were paid arrears of N105,000 at the annual rate of N1,500 from 1913.

For the avoidance of doubt, certain sections and interest groups in Rivers state have still repeatedly denied the historical dual ownership of Port Harcourt.

It must be noted that the Ikwerres that took part in the alienation of Port Harcourt with their Okrika counterparts still posses, control and alienate their lands that were the subject of the deed. They have continuously done so without any challenge from government even though their forebears had alienated their land on 18th May 1913.

For the immediate development of Port Harcourt, some of the area occupied by the Okrika Ijaw people in their various villages were required. This led to the inhabitants being displaced without any concrete attempts at a resettlement programme for the displaced inhabitants.

Origin of waterfront communities:
The Okrika Ijaw inhabitants, otherwise called the Port Harcourt aborigines of the various villages affected by the deed of 18 May, 1913 were not effectively resettled. The Okrika Ijaw inhabitants of these villages were predominantly seafarers and depend on the seas, rivers and creeks for their livelihood.

With dogged determination to confront and overcome their state of homelessness by sheer industry, dedication and hard work, these displaced Okrika Ijaw inhabitants began to reclaim the various waterfronts adjacent to their original villages by cutting Chikoko mud from the mangrove swamps and depositing same on the adjacent waterfronts to drive back the water and create new land to build new homes. This is the genesis of the Okrika Ijaw waterfront communities

Naturally the original names of the villages of these early Okrika Ijaw inhabitants as contained in the 1913 Port Harcourt agreement became the names of these new adjacent waterfronts settlements, for example Okrika waterfront is Toinpirima. Various non indigenes found it more convenient to call these waterfronts by the names of towns to which people depart or streets next to these waterfronts, such as Bonny waterside, Bille waterside, Nembe waterside etc etc., instead of the original name like Toinpirima.

Between 1913 and the present day, successive generations of Wakirike people have lived in these waterfront communities, investing time, labour capital and billions of naira to develop properties therein. These properties have passed from generation to generation.

In these waterfront communities there are organized structures and leaderships, for example, there are Ama Chairmen, Polo Chairmen, Chiefs, community development committees, youth bodies, women bodies etc.

I want to make it clear that Okrika people are not against development in Port Harcourt in particular and Rivers state in general. We are in total support of providing modern facilities and amenities for the citizenry. We are opposed to any large scale , social , economic and habitation dislocation of our people and communities by way of demolition of the waterfront communities in the name of development or urban renewal without any alternative fore their relocation.

We suggested to the governor that he should in conjunction with the leadership of the various communities and the Chiefs of Wakirike, redesign and restructure the various waterfronts communities with minimal disruption of lives, dislocation of people and demolition of properties.

The issue of resettling the displaced Okrika Ijaw Port Harcourt aborigines since 1913 must be addressed by sand filling the various mangrove swamps in and around Port Harcourt develop same and relocate the inhabitants of these waterfronts communities to these developed sand filled lands.

Retain and recognize the original names of the various Okrika Ijaw towns and villages as contained in the Port Harcourt agreement of 18 May, 1913, just like the Ikwerre towns involved in the said agreement. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander

We want to see the plan. This is because there are already structures that were demolished by this government like the University of Port Harcourt Teaching hospital, (UPTH) in town which was a former General Hospital, where as a young doctor I did my housemanship, and they promised to build a befitting high rise hospital with partnership with a Canadian firm, nothing there yet.  The Cultural centre was demolished too and it is lying fallow. With all these we want to be sure of government good intentions. We don’t want homelessness to be created for us.

Three Million Jobs to be Created as Jonathan Inaugurates Board

Determined to ensure job creation, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday inaugurated Presidential Jobs Board.

The board is saddled with the responsibility of creating three million jobs in the next 12 months.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Jonathan said: “Let me charge departments and agencies of government that have been training people over the period, like SMEDAN, ITF, PTDF, NDE, NIMASA, Women Affairs and other agencies that do that as a part of their responsibility, to train young men and women in acquiring different skills.

“There is a missing link, because there is a difference between training people to acquire skills and job creation. I have observed over a period that agencies of government are more interested in training.
“But my conviction is that if you train 100 people and none of them is either self-employed or employed by any corporation that is a total waste, you are rather frustrating more people and probably increasing the number of criminals in the society.

“I always say that if you train a young man as a welder and he has no job, he will use that skill to break into banks, because you have trained him on how to handle iron and how to handle complicated locks.

“So if he is not employed, you have created more problems for the society. Instead of training 100 people and none of them will get jobs, train 20 and use the money for the 80 to create employment for these people. It is not just how many people you train but how many people you have given employment through that training programme.

“So if you are training don’t just come and tell us that you trained 100 or 1,000 people, but how many of them are either self-employed or are gainfully employed,” the president said.

“No one can deny that jobs are at the centre of any economic revolution. In fact, the problem facing any heads of government all over the world is job creation.

“They are essential to make our people live well and they are critical to the promotion of our people’s dignity. Jobs enhance self worth and it is a source of personal pride. Indeed job creation is at the heart of national economic and social development.

“We have carefully constituted the Jobs Board to include key members of the public and private sector, this is to ensure that the board can draw on the cross expertise of people in government as well as those in private enterprise,” he added.

In his remarks, Vice-President Namadi Sambo assured the president that the board would immediately set to work to ensure that the benchmark of three million jobs within the next 12 months is met.

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who spoke to State House correspondents shortly after the inauguration said the oil and gas sector has made it a priority in the last three years to ensure Nigerians get the tools needed in securing jobs in the sector.

“We had brought in the Nigeria content so strongly that at no time in Nigeria’s history have you seen this number of Nigerians across the spectrum of expertise coming into the oil and gas sector. They did not need to be petroleum engineers or even geologists to get jobs.

“They only needed to have the abilities to learn and come at different levels to come into the entire spectrum of the downstream service sector of the oil and gas industry. As you all know, it has been a great success and it is now being repeated across other sectors of the economy.

“As we concentrate on working in gas development to ensure it is working in tandem with the power sector, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as well as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), we should be able to power our IPPs (independent power plants) over the next 18 months, and we will change the face of the economy in its entirety.

“We are also simultaneously looking to ensure that Nigeria has gas for industrialisation and that we bring in the petrochemical plants that you are hearing about and methanol plants that will begin to move aggressively into the LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). You can imagine the number of jobs just the LPG will create,” Alison-Madueke said.

She added that the pilot project had been very successful by changing taxis from running on fuel to gas-powered automobiles which are much cheaper to run than petrol-powered cars.

“There are so many areas where Nigerians can come in to learn the tools of the trade and get employment. Of course, PTDF has been training people for many years in welding.

“So I think there are hosts of opportunities for Nigerians with the array of expertise Mr. President has put together here,” she said.
Also speaking, Chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), Mr. Tony Elumelu, said members of the private sector had been encouraged to be part of the board because of the transformation initiatives of the federal government.

“We are happy that we have the Minister of Petroleum Resources here among us who has played a strong role in the transformation from the point of view of indigenisation by bringing in Nigerian players in the oil and gas sector.

“The committee was also charged by President Jonathan to ensure that it trains people for employability, which we intend to achieve,” he said.

The Presidential Jobs Board consists of Sambo as its chairman, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim; Alison-Madueke; Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga; Minister of Labour, Mr. Emeka Wogu; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina; Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Musa Sada; Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu; Minister of Education, Mr. Ibrahim Shekarau; and CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, among other ministers, as members.

Others include representatives of the private sector, comprising Elumelu, President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Chairman Stanbic IBTC Plc, Mr. Atedo Peterside; Chairman of Innoson Group, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma; Managing Director, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Bisi Onasanya; and Chairman/CEO of Aiteo Oil and Gas, Mr. Benny Peters, among others.

Ekwueme, Clark, Southern Leaders Ask Jega to Resign over New Polling Units

• INEC defends action, explains criteria Approves additional 1,169 polling units for Zamfara

The leaders of Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly (SNPA) led by a former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, former Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Senator Femi Okurounmu and Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi yesterday called on the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, to resign for the shoddy way he managed the allocation and distribution of the 30,000 extra polling units.

However, in swift reaction, Jega said that resignation is out of the way as he has a job to do, stating that he did not lobby to be appointed the chairman of the commission.

The INEC chairman also said that he would quit the chairmanship of the commission at the appointed time, as “I won’t wait to be fired.”

The SNPA leaders were reacting to the distribution of the 30,000 polling units that allocated 21615 polling units to the three zones of the north and 8412 polling units to the three zones of the southern states.

In a communiqué signed by Clark, coordinating chairman (South-south), Ekwueme, co-chairman (South-east) and Okurounmu (South-west), the leaders said:  “We demand the immediate resignation of Jega as chairman of INEC.
“We call on President Goodluck Jonathan, to without further delay reorganise the composition and structure of INEC, to provide Nigerians the platform for free and fair elections.

“We recognise the determination of President Jonathan to leave a legacy for free and fair electoral contest as we have witnessed in the elections conducted under his watch.  Since Jega has shown the potential to thwart the noble objective of free and fair elections in 2015 to which Mr. President has shown appreciable commitment, he does not deserve to remain as the electoral umpire a day longer,” they said.

According to the communiqué, the SNPA members further said that, “As plausible as these reasons may sound to the architects of this voodoo and arbitrary allocation of polling units, the people of Southern Nigeria and indeed the Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly view this invidious act as a script perfectly crafted for  Jega to implement, in continuation of the well-known hegemonic agenda, by the enemies of our hard won democracy.

“The people of Southern Nigeria are not only appalled, but also strongly reject Jega’s claims and averment, whatever persuasions may have motivated this very callous, insensitive, disparate, oppressive, and inconsonant decision to give the North a clear political advantage over the South contrary to the reality on ground.

“Who does Jega think he is deceiving? As a professor of Political Science, if this concocted manipulation of polling units is his clever design to give undue political advantage to the North, having clearly in mind the 2015 presidential election, we wish to remind him without equivocation that he has failed woefully in his decrepit mission.

In his reaction however, Jega said, “the question of reconsidering the allocation of the 30,000 polling units does not arise in the first place, because there is no hidden agenda. The exercise was done to ease congestion of polling centres.”
He blamed critics of the distribution of the polling centres as “ethnic jingoists, mischief makers who read ethnic meanings into all issues.”

According to Jega, who said that resignation is out of the way, as he has a national assignment to do, , “I did not lobby for this job and I will not to be fired. People can say anything they like, as it does not bother me. I will do what is right. I did not lobby for this job and the day I cannot do the job, I will resign, as I will not wait to be fired if this job goes against my conscience.”

However, Jega yesterday rose in defence of the distribution of the recently created extra 30,000 polling units in the country, stating that it was aimed at easing decongestions of polling units and accommodate new residential areas where there were no polling centres.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Jega said: “INEC’s decision to re-configure the structure of polling units as well as create additional ones is driven by our collective aspirations as Nigerians to reform and improve upon the electoral process for free, fair, peaceful and credible elections in 2015 and beyond.
“There is no sectional or parochial agenda in this decision, as this press conference will prove, and there will never be any such agenda under this commission,” he said.

According to the INEC chairman, the basic aim of the exercise was to ease the access of voters to the ballot box in the 2015 general election and beyond, by decongesting over-crowded polling units (PUs) and dispersing voters as evenly as possible among all the PUs and locating PUs more effectively within commuting distances of voters.

Jega also said given that movement is usually restricted on election day, relocating the PUs from “in-front of” private houses and such other unsuitable places, to public buildings or where this is not possible, to public open spaces where tents can be provided, locating the PUs inside classrooms or such other suitable enclosures, in line with international best practices, splitting large PUs such that they have on average of 500 registered voters; and creating additional PUs to cater for the splitting of large polling units as well as new settlements not serviced by any existing PU.

Jega explained that the earlier polling units were created in 1996 by the defunct National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), which created 120,000 polling units and 8,809 wards (Registration Areas), stating that the structure of polling units has been used for the 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011 general elections.
Meanwhile, INEC’s the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Zamfara State, Alhaji Jibrin Zarewa, yesterday announced that the commission had approved additional 1,169 polling units

Zarewa made this known in Gusau when he inaugurated a 11-member committee to review the location of the existing polling units and stations in Zamfara.
He said  the aim was to make voting convenient and ensure nobody was disenfranchised.

The REC, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said after considerable observations by INEC in all the states, approval was given for additional polling units according to the need of each state.
“This led to the increase of polling units from 2,516 to 3,679 in Zamfara State,” he said.

He said the committee, which would be chaired by the Secretary of the Local Commission, Alhaji Ahmed Zogirma, would be responsible for the citing of the new polling units.

He noted that some polling units that had more than the required 500 voters would now be adequately taken care of by the increase in polling units.
Zarewa said the polling units and stations would be situated within one kilometre radius for voter convenience.
The commissioner said that no polling unit would be sited at places of worship, private residence, premises of traditional rulers and public buildings marked for demolition.
He said the committee would submit its report in two weeks.

THISDAY

BOKO HARAM: Shettima gave us money to kill Gubio, so he can become governor – Detained suspect

Another report has emerged following  Australian negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davies, fingering a former Borno Governor, Modu Sheriff and the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika as Boko Haram sponsors.

The latest high profile name to be added to the list of alleged sponsors of Boko Haram is the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima.

According to a new report from a Magazine, “power Steering,” Governor Shettima is behind the killing of late Alhaji Awana Ngala, former ANPP chairman in Borno State, who was tipped to succeed former governor Ali Modu Sheriff as well as Engr. Modu Fannami Gubio, the gubernatorial candidate of the ANPP, who was killed barely one week after he was appointed to succeed Modu Sheriff in the 2011 general election.

The publication which said it had a secret conversation with a detained Boko Haram member, Mustapha Kolo who revealed that there is an existing relationship between the sect and the Borno State governor right from his time as a commissioner, where he served in five ministries before his election as Governor of Borno State.

Kolo revealed that the governor had been giving them money to further their course and had been meeting with their leaders over targeted assassinations of prominent Borno citizens and politicians, who did not share his own political ideas.

“When he (Shettima) was Commissioner, he used to give us plenty money. He even gave us money to kill Fannami Gubio, so he can become governor, but he did not complete his payment; we were following him, he didn’t give us again”. He said.

Credit: today.ng
 

INSURGENCY: Adamawa youths, vigilantes kill 80 fleeing Boko Haram militants

At least 80 fleeing Boko Haram fighters were killed by Adamawa youths as well as vigilantes in  Michika and Madagali local government areas of the state, Tuesday night.

It was learnt that the insurgents were wreaking havoc on some boundary communities in Adamawa and Borno states, and were believed to have ran into the bush after running out of arms and ammunition.

Residents say normalcy had returned to the the LGAs with troops stationed in strategic places.

A resident of Michika, Vandi Joseph, who spoke with Punch on Wednesday in Yola said that the insurgents were overpowered by youths and vigilantes who shot them to death.

He said, “As I am speaking to you, our youths and vigilance group members ambushed and killed over 80 insurgents who escaped from soldiers and hid themselves in the bush. Our youths and vigilantes saw them and killed them.”