The time has finally come when this blog officially ceases to count. It has done its time, hopefully given a glimpse into the going-ons of Nigerian government, sports, and living. I am very proud to be part Nigerian despite its inadequacies. I see glimpses of hope in Nigeria's weakened infrastructure. I know that there are many who are concerned about creating a better Nigeria, and together we can make a difference. We are the most populous country in Africa, we have numerous resources and brilliant minds at our disposal. I have no doubt that with God on our side, educated youth returning to Nigeria (from universities abroad), and sheer willpower, we will be able to be that change. :)
I hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit more about the corruption, character, and charm of one of my countries of citizenship!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Trailer kills 20 - 25 injured
Trailer kills 20 - 25 injured
BLOOD flowed freely on Tuesday in Awka, Anambra State, as no fewer than 20 people were feared dead and another 25 sustained varying degrees of injuries in an auto accident.
The crash, which occurred at the busy Akwata junction, according to eyewitnesses, was caused by a truck carrying heavy construction equipment after its brakes failed and it ran into a crowd of people.
Akwata junction is a popular point of convergence for Okada riders, pay-phone operators, hawkers, commuters and other artisans. However, there were conflicting reports on the number of people killed in the accident and those injured.
Many of those involved were Okada operators as no fewer than 10 motor cycles were seen crushed at the scene of the accident. Two vehicles, a blue Peugeot 504 car and a tipper lorry which the truck ran into before it crashed into the block industry premises were seen at the site of the accident.
Reports also said that some passengers who just alighted from some vehicles at the bus stop also fell victim. It was wailing as relatives of the victims and passers-by surged to see the mangled bodies of victims.
At the Regina Ceili Hospital two victims were confirmed dead, while four of those injured were receiving treatment. Some eyewitnesses said that some of the bodies and injured persons were taken to some private hospitals.
This article was taken from the Nigerian Tribune newspaper website, www.tribune.com.
Nigeria: Newcastle Pays Off Babayaro
Nigeria: Newcastle Pays Off Babayaro
This Day (Lagos)
10 December 2007
Posted to the web 11 December 2007
Olawale Ajimotokan
Lagos
One time Nigerian international Celestine Babayaro is on his way out of Newcastle after both the club and player reportedly reached an agreement to sever company.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle of yesterday reported that the 29 year-old wing back will now be paid off ahead of his contract due to run out at the end of next season.
By the spirit of the deal, departure of the injury prone former Super Eagles defender from St James's Park will now be take effect in the winter transfer window that begins this month.
Babayaro's Magpies spell has been blighted by injuries which has limited his appearances for the club.
He has not been part of the team this season having last played for the club in March against Liverpool in a home league fixture which the Magpies won 2-1.
Babayaro, who was capped 26 times by Nigeria joined Newcastle in January 2005 from Chelsea where he played nearly 150 games for £1m.
He had a rosy spell at Stamford Bridge where he was the backbone of the defence from 1997 with the flamboyant Dutchman Ruud Gullit in charge of the team.
He was an instrumental member of the Nigerian national team that won the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta in 1996. He also posted a five-star display for the Eagles at the 1998 World Cup.
His first call in Europe was Anderlecht of Belgium from where he secured a £2.25m move to Chelsea.
Babayaro only started 66 games for Newcastle and his only goal came in an FA Cup tie with Coventry City at St James's Park in his first season.
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His injury record never really endeared him to the Toom Army who wanted Sam Allardyce to offload him when the latter left Bolton at the beginning of the season to replace Glenn Roeder as the team manager.
On the international front, Babayaro touted as the future leader of the Nigerian team also made the headlines for the wrong reasons which thus limited his appearances to 26 matches relative to his age.
He first had a burst out with Nigerian officials over flight ticket refund at Sydney 2000. His career ended after he and two other players were expelled at the Nations Cup in Tunisia 2004 for a breach of a camp curfew.
This article was taken from This Day newspaper, and posted online at allAfrica.com
Monday, December 10, 2007
Senate to Check Budget Misappropriation
Senate to Check Budget Misappropriation
From Sufuyan Ojeifo in Abuja,
12.10.2007
In a bid to ensure that funds allocated for projects are not misappropriated, the Senate has decided to embark on an all-year monitoring of budgets, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, has said.Speaking with THISDAY yesterday in Abuja ahead of Senate’s resumption of plenary tomorrow, Eze said the upper legislative chamber had set up an ad-hoc committee on the National Assembly and Research office to fine-tune the process of tracking the budget and expenditure.He said the Senate would receive from the ad-hoc committee reports of its meeting with the House of Representatives with a view to setting up the office.According to him, “the Senate has set up an ad-hoc committee on the National Assembly Budget and Research Office. We would like to hear how far they have gone in their collaboration with the House of Representatives with a view to setting up that office. “One of the reasons that have caused a lot of confusion in our treating the budget has been that the facts are only coming from one side (the Executive branch) and second, the facts are usually delayed and rushed towards the end. “Now, the National Assembly wants to have its own Budget Office that will enable it to track revenue from January to December and be able to have all the propositions so that the issue of benchmarking cannot be an arbitrary decision; so that the issue of Medium-Term Frameworks cannot be arbitrarily determined by one side,” he said.Eze added: “It is something that everybody will understand and consummate and be in positions to make contributions. So the committee is an important committee and we want to know what the committee has been able to do within the short period.”Eze said: “This is also part of the determination of the Senate to ensure that budget monitoring is an all-year round exercise and we are deciding that rather than just hold these sessions during budget, we are going to continue to hold the sessions periodically.” He said the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would come to defend their budgets all through the year “so that we follow budget performance; so that the sort of things we are seeing now where somebody will appropriate money for a project, assess that project and then put the money in some interest-yielding accounts by some faceless persons will become a thing of the past.” Decrying a situation where “by December, no contract had been awarded and the money had been accessed early in the year simply because there had not been extensive over-sighting,” Eze said, “That will stop. I can assure you.”Eze said the 2008 budget would be ready before the end of this month if the Senate kept up with the speed at which it was currently considering the budget at the sub-committee and Appropriation committee levels.“I believe that working at the speed at which we are going, the budget will be ready before the end of this month. It may not be ready by mid-December, but it should be ready definitely before the end of the month,” he said.“When the Senate resumes on Tuesday (tomorrow), more importantly, we would expect to hear from the Appropriation Committee on how far they have gone with the work of trying to tidy up the budget so that we can go to the next session of calling a joint conference with the lower house so that we can pass the budget,” he said.He also disclosed that the Senate would consider the approval of the three outstanding ambassadorial nominees- Mohammed Buba Marwa, Kema Chikwe and Polycarp Nwite-who were screened by the Foreign Affairs Committee about two weeks ago.According to him, “A lot of outstanding issues will be cleared. You know that there are three ambassadorial nominees that were not screened ab-initio. They have now been screened. They have to come to the Senate for final approval. “There are also a number of committee assignments and reports like the report of the Committee on Finance on the nomination of Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS),” he said.
This article was taken from the online version of ThisDay Newspaper, thisdayonline.com
From Sufuyan Ojeifo in Abuja,
12.10.2007
In a bid to ensure that funds allocated for projects are not misappropriated, the Senate has decided to embark on an all-year monitoring of budgets, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, has said.Speaking with THISDAY yesterday in Abuja ahead of Senate’s resumption of plenary tomorrow, Eze said the upper legislative chamber had set up an ad-hoc committee on the National Assembly and Research office to fine-tune the process of tracking the budget and expenditure.He said the Senate would receive from the ad-hoc committee reports of its meeting with the House of Representatives with a view to setting up the office.According to him, “the Senate has set up an ad-hoc committee on the National Assembly Budget and Research Office. We would like to hear how far they have gone in their collaboration with the House of Representatives with a view to setting up that office. “One of the reasons that have caused a lot of confusion in our treating the budget has been that the facts are only coming from one side (the Executive branch) and second, the facts are usually delayed and rushed towards the end. “Now, the National Assembly wants to have its own Budget Office that will enable it to track revenue from January to December and be able to have all the propositions so that the issue of benchmarking cannot be an arbitrary decision; so that the issue of Medium-Term Frameworks cannot be arbitrarily determined by one side,” he said.Eze added: “It is something that everybody will understand and consummate and be in positions to make contributions. So the committee is an important committee and we want to know what the committee has been able to do within the short period.”Eze said: “This is also part of the determination of the Senate to ensure that budget monitoring is an all-year round exercise and we are deciding that rather than just hold these sessions during budget, we are going to continue to hold the sessions periodically.” He said the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would come to defend their budgets all through the year “so that we follow budget performance; so that the sort of things we are seeing now where somebody will appropriate money for a project, assess that project and then put the money in some interest-yielding accounts by some faceless persons will become a thing of the past.” Decrying a situation where “by December, no contract had been awarded and the money had been accessed early in the year simply because there had not been extensive over-sighting,” Eze said, “That will stop. I can assure you.”Eze said the 2008 budget would be ready before the end of this month if the Senate kept up with the speed at which it was currently considering the budget at the sub-committee and Appropriation committee levels.“I believe that working at the speed at which we are going, the budget will be ready before the end of this month. It may not be ready by mid-December, but it should be ready definitely before the end of the month,” he said.“When the Senate resumes on Tuesday (tomorrow), more importantly, we would expect to hear from the Appropriation Committee on how far they have gone with the work of trying to tidy up the budget so that we can go to the next session of calling a joint conference with the lower house so that we can pass the budget,” he said.He also disclosed that the Senate would consider the approval of the three outstanding ambassadorial nominees- Mohammed Buba Marwa, Kema Chikwe and Polycarp Nwite-who were screened by the Foreign Affairs Committee about two weeks ago.According to him, “A lot of outstanding issues will be cleared. You know that there are three ambassadorial nominees that were not screened ab-initio. They have now been screened. They have to come to the Senate for final approval. “There are also a number of committee assignments and reports like the report of the Committee on Finance on the nomination of Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS),” he said.
This article was taken from the online version of ThisDay Newspaper, thisdayonline.com
Sosoliso Crash
Sosoliso crash: Families yet to be fully compensated 2 years after
By UCHE USIM
Monday, December 10, 2007
Families of victims of the December 10, 2005 plane crash in Port Harcourt involving a Sosoliso’s DC-9 aircraft (flight 1145) are yet to receive their claims.The situation is worsened by the fact that the airline has been grounded since last year by the Federal Government.According to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations, families of air crash victims ought to recieve a $100,000 compensation each. But the airline has been unable to pay as it had an axe to grind with its insurers, Lloyds. Flight 1145 had 109 persons on board at the time of the crash and 103 of them died instantly as a result of fire burns, while five others later died in the hospital, bringing the number of casualties to 108. Report of the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau blamed the crash on low level windshear and crew’s delay in aborting landing at that time. Many watched helplessly at the airport as the victims, which included Pastor Bimbo Odukoya, a popular evangelist, burnt to death. Fire fighting vehicles of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) were reportedly without water, a situation which hampered rescue operations. As the nation remembers victims of the Sosoliso crash, a call has been made to the Federal Government to refocus on the aviation sector, upgrade the industry and make air travelling safer. Commenting on the non paynment of compensation, the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, regretted that what was due each family had not been paid in full as only partial compensation had been made. According to the NCAA helmsman, “only N118.5 million has been paid as compensation to some families here and there out of N1.34 billion. Not a single family has been paid the stipulated $100,000.”Continuing, he said: “They will come and tell you they have paid compensation, if they paid true compensation 103 passengers would have collected N1.34 billion, however they paid partially here and there out of that amount they have only paid N118.5 million as of today. So, they have not even paid up to N200 million. So they still have to pay almost N1.2 billion.”
The President of Aviation Round Table (ART) Capt. Dele Ore, told aviation journalists that “as the crash turns two years, our hearts remain with the families of those children and other families, but are we prepared to cope in case of a reoccurence?” “We have gone a long way since then in terms of regulation but in terms of search and rescue, if such happens again, can we readily rescue people? I have my doubts,” he said. Ore said the second year anniversary should serve as a period to refocus on the industry to ensure that adequate facilities were available to offer help to people in case of such emergency. Ore spoke as the victims’ families continued to wait for their compensation claims which statutorily is 100,000 US dollars per victim. Payment of the remaining claims is presently contentious even as parents of the children from Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, slammed a N30 billion suit on the airline, requesting for damages. Also the nation’s regulatory aviation body, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in November last year, suspended the airline from operations for safety reasons and also for failing to pay up the compensation claims. Following the development, the airline was also unable to scale the recapitalisation hurdle and has since been out of operation with the Federal Government and the NCAA, insisting that only payment of the claims could make its case to be reconsidered. The Director-General of the NCAA, Dr Harold Demuren, has consistently said that until the shortfall of the compensation claims, which is over N1 billion was paid, the airline would remain grounded. The Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB) of the Minstry of Aviation had given probable and contributory factors for the crash. “The probable cause of the accident was the crew’s decision to continue the approach (to land) beyond the decision altitude without having the runway and/or airport in sight,” the report stated. The report also said that the aircraft tail section, eventually made contact with the grass strip between the runway 21 and the taxi-way and its rear fuselage later ran into an exposed concrete drainage culvert which detached one of its engines. The report said that wind shear, poor visibility in thunderstorm and rain, as at the time the aircraft came in to land was also a contributory factor as the airfield lightings were not on and may have impaired the pilot from sighting the runway. It recommended that airfield lightings under FAAN should be transferred the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) so that they could be controlled from the control tower.
It also recommended among other things the need for uninterrupted power supply (UPS) to airfield lightings to ensure all critical aids were on throughout the operational period of airports.
This article was taken from the online version of the Daily Sun. sunnewsonline.com
By UCHE USIM
Monday, December 10, 2007
Families of victims of the December 10, 2005 plane crash in Port Harcourt involving a Sosoliso’s DC-9 aircraft (flight 1145) are yet to receive their claims.The situation is worsened by the fact that the airline has been grounded since last year by the Federal Government.According to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations, families of air crash victims ought to recieve a $100,000 compensation each. But the airline has been unable to pay as it had an axe to grind with its insurers, Lloyds. Flight 1145 had 109 persons on board at the time of the crash and 103 of them died instantly as a result of fire burns, while five others later died in the hospital, bringing the number of casualties to 108. Report of the Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau blamed the crash on low level windshear and crew’s delay in aborting landing at that time. Many watched helplessly at the airport as the victims, which included Pastor Bimbo Odukoya, a popular evangelist, burnt to death. Fire fighting vehicles of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) were reportedly without water, a situation which hampered rescue operations. As the nation remembers victims of the Sosoliso crash, a call has been made to the Federal Government to refocus on the aviation sector, upgrade the industry and make air travelling safer. Commenting on the non paynment of compensation, the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, regretted that what was due each family had not been paid in full as only partial compensation had been made. According to the NCAA helmsman, “only N118.5 million has been paid as compensation to some families here and there out of N1.34 billion. Not a single family has been paid the stipulated $100,000.”Continuing, he said: “They will come and tell you they have paid compensation, if they paid true compensation 103 passengers would have collected N1.34 billion, however they paid partially here and there out of that amount they have only paid N118.5 million as of today. So, they have not even paid up to N200 million. So they still have to pay almost N1.2 billion.”
The President of Aviation Round Table (ART) Capt. Dele Ore, told aviation journalists that “as the crash turns two years, our hearts remain with the families of those children and other families, but are we prepared to cope in case of a reoccurence?” “We have gone a long way since then in terms of regulation but in terms of search and rescue, if such happens again, can we readily rescue people? I have my doubts,” he said. Ore said the second year anniversary should serve as a period to refocus on the industry to ensure that adequate facilities were available to offer help to people in case of such emergency. Ore spoke as the victims’ families continued to wait for their compensation claims which statutorily is 100,000 US dollars per victim. Payment of the remaining claims is presently contentious even as parents of the children from Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, slammed a N30 billion suit on the airline, requesting for damages. Also the nation’s regulatory aviation body, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in November last year, suspended the airline from operations for safety reasons and also for failing to pay up the compensation claims. Following the development, the airline was also unable to scale the recapitalisation hurdle and has since been out of operation with the Federal Government and the NCAA, insisting that only payment of the claims could make its case to be reconsidered. The Director-General of the NCAA, Dr Harold Demuren, has consistently said that until the shortfall of the compensation claims, which is over N1 billion was paid, the airline would remain grounded. The Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB) of the Minstry of Aviation had given probable and contributory factors for the crash. “The probable cause of the accident was the crew’s decision to continue the approach (to land) beyond the decision altitude without having the runway and/or airport in sight,” the report stated. The report also said that the aircraft tail section, eventually made contact with the grass strip between the runway 21 and the taxi-way and its rear fuselage later ran into an exposed concrete drainage culvert which detached one of its engines. The report said that wind shear, poor visibility in thunderstorm and rain, as at the time the aircraft came in to land was also a contributory factor as the airfield lightings were not on and may have impaired the pilot from sighting the runway. It recommended that airfield lightings under FAAN should be transferred the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) so that they could be controlled from the control tower.
It also recommended among other things the need for uninterrupted power supply (UPS) to airfield lightings to ensure all critical aids were on throughout the operational period of airports.
This article was taken from the online version of the Daily Sun. sunnewsonline.com
Zeniith Bank: Shareholders reap 600% capital gain
Zenith Bank:Shareholders reap 600% capital gain
Sunday, 09 December 2007
WITH Zenith Bank PLC returning to the capital market in a hybrid offer to raise N130 billion, it has been revealed that investors who participated in the bank’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2004 have enjoyed capital gains of about 600 per cent.
Zenith Bank is back in the market in an offer for subscription of 1,763,000,000 ordinary shares of 50k each at N38.90k and a rights issue of 1,654,557,911 units at N36.90k. The offer which opened on
Thursday, December 6, 2007 will run till January 17, 2008.
Before trading was frozen, as required by law, Zenith stock traded for N46.09, indicating that the shares on offer are coming at a discount of at least N10 per share.
Since its IPO in 2004, the Zenith stock has enjoyed positive progression from N10.90 to peak at N66.14 per share at the end of trading at the NSE on June 30, 2007, representing a total gain of over N55.24 per share.
Apart from the capital appreciation, investors have also reaped from the bank’s generous dividend payout as the bank made good on the promise made when it went public in 2004 and during the public offer of 2006 by paying out about N20 billion in just three years.
A detailed analysis of the bank’s Annual Report for the past three financial years showed that the bank surpassed its dividend projections of N5.1 billion for 2006 by actually paying out N6.6 billion (or N1.10 per share), representing a 29.6 per cent increase. In a similar fashion, the bank surpassed its projections of N7.6 billion for 2007 by paying out N9.2 billion (or 100 kobo per share), representing a 21 per cent increase.
The bank paid a dividend of N6.6 billion at the end of its 2004/2005 financial year up from the 4.2 billion (or 70 kobo per share) paid out the previous year.
Every year, since its IPO, the bank has scored high on credibility among investors for usually surpassing the dividend projections made when it went public.
Zenith Bank has enjoyed a successful year, with its consistently good financial performance producing high patronage on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), leading to the bank being named the “Quoted Company of the Year” by the Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
For investors, this is another opportunity to buy into a stock that is structured for long-term value and a bank that has instituted its own unique business model that is designed to surpass its superior performance year after year
This article was taken from vanguardngr.com the online version of the Nigerian paper, Vanguard.
Sunday, 09 December 2007
WITH Zenith Bank PLC returning to the capital market in a hybrid offer to raise N130 billion, it has been revealed that investors who participated in the bank’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2004 have enjoyed capital gains of about 600 per cent.
Zenith Bank is back in the market in an offer for subscription of 1,763,000,000 ordinary shares of 50k each at N38.90k and a rights issue of 1,654,557,911 units at N36.90k. The offer which opened on
Thursday, December 6, 2007 will run till January 17, 2008.
Before trading was frozen, as required by law, Zenith stock traded for N46.09, indicating that the shares on offer are coming at a discount of at least N10 per share.
Since its IPO in 2004, the Zenith stock has enjoyed positive progression from N10.90 to peak at N66.14 per share at the end of trading at the NSE on June 30, 2007, representing a total gain of over N55.24 per share.
Apart from the capital appreciation, investors have also reaped from the bank’s generous dividend payout as the bank made good on the promise made when it went public in 2004 and during the public offer of 2006 by paying out about N20 billion in just three years.
A detailed analysis of the bank’s Annual Report for the past three financial years showed that the bank surpassed its dividend projections of N5.1 billion for 2006 by actually paying out N6.6 billion (or N1.10 per share), representing a 29.6 per cent increase. In a similar fashion, the bank surpassed its projections of N7.6 billion for 2007 by paying out N9.2 billion (or 100 kobo per share), representing a 21 per cent increase.
The bank paid a dividend of N6.6 billion at the end of its 2004/2005 financial year up from the 4.2 billion (or 70 kobo per share) paid out the previous year.
Every year, since its IPO, the bank has scored high on credibility among investors for usually surpassing the dividend projections made when it went public.
Zenith Bank has enjoyed a successful year, with its consistently good financial performance producing high patronage on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), leading to the bank being named the “Quoted Company of the Year” by the Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
For investors, this is another opportunity to buy into a stock that is structured for long-term value and a bank that has instituted its own unique business model that is designed to surpass its superior performance year after year
This article was taken from vanguardngr.com the online version of the Nigerian paper, Vanguard.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Nigeria: Robbers Attack FCT Medical Store
Nigeria: Robbers Attack FCT Medical Store
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Leadership (Abuja)
27 November 2007
Posted to the web 27 November 2007
Golu Timothy
About 20 armed robbers, at the weekend, attacked the FCT central medical store located around Jabi in Utako district, and injured two of the civilian security personnel keeping guard.
However, the secretary for health in the FCT, Dr. Danladi Rupuba Arabs, said the robbers were disappointed because there was no money to steal in the store.
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The robbers were said to have pounced on the strategic medical facility Friday night by jumping the high walls and took the three guards captive.
One of the security men said: "15 of the armed robbers jumped the fence, with four of them holding guns while others stayed outside the fence. As soon as they jumped inside, they started to beat us, and asked us to show them where money was kept. We told them there was no money here, except drugs, but they insisted on checking for themselves".
The robbers broke into all the offices including the toilets, but found a big iron safe locked in the accounts section.
Thinking they had suceeded, they invested all their energy in breaking the heavy iron safe, only to discover there was no single kobo.
Confirming the development to journalists, the health secretary, Dr. Danlami Arabs said, there was no physical cash, "because we are running a cashless system. We have since stopped money transaction in this place, and therefore we don't keep money here".
He directed that barb wires be put round the fences and enough security lights provided for the entire facility.
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According to him, the robbers must have been attracted by the centralisation process in drug distribution, and the pressure put on them by demolitions but that they would not suceed.
He stated that he was happy wth the Utako police for moving in fast to make alternative arrangements, expressing confidence that the police would liaise with the leadership of the store to beef up security.
The secretary was led round the facility by Pharmacist Idris Abdullazeez, a deputy director.
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