BESUMSA ELECTIONS

The Benue State University Medical Student Associatlion, hold her much delayed elections today, the 10the of December, 20099, the Venue For the election is Lecture Hall B, in the college of Health Sciences. Students are adviced to come out in mass and participate, fully.

We can’t have a lame as president, says Cardinal Okogie

Amidst of the raging storm on President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, on the basis of his ill health, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, has said the country cannot afford to have a lame man as president.




In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun, Cardinal Okogie, who said many right thinking Nigerians had foreseen the present quagmire, blamed the present embarrassment, the president’s health is causing the nation, on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who he accused of foisting Yar’Adua on Nigeria.



According to Cardinal Okogie, “Nigeria is such a big and complex nation that no one can really understand it. We, Nigerians, think we are clever. We think we can cheat God. In all the aspects of life, things that Nigerians were not doing 40, 50, 60 years back, we are doing them today and that is why there is no progress in this nation and unless we look back, there will be no progress.



“Take for example, the under 17 national team, look at what happened. Look at our Super Eagles. There was a time the Super Eagles was a team to be reckoned with in the world. What have we today? Nothing. Secondly, Nigerians like to be deceived, to be flattered and as a result, we now have so many sycophants all over.

“The fear of God right now in Nigeria is almost gone and except for the mercy of God that is still holding us and as a result of that, there are so many quacks that call themselves prophets and prophetess and all what not and people, because they are gullible, are giving them chances to feed fat on the innocent ones, leaving the true God that we should serve and serving man, telling lies to one another.



“During the campaign that brought Yar’Adua to office, Obasanjo was the one talking and the man he was campaigning for hardly spoke. Only God knows why. It is not because he is not given the gift of speech, but if you want him in such an exalted position, at least, you must allow him to express himself to his people.



Obasanjo was the one doing everything but those of us who have eyes and who have ears and who still have our senses correct, saw that there was something fishy about it. Now, how can you take a whole nation like this for a ride?

“Obasanjo knows this man is not too well and look at what we are getting. Why put somebody like that there? And look at the results of the election we had. You saw how everything went zig zag, zig zag and till today, they are still having tribunal, tribunal and tribunal.

“A big nation like Nigeria, a nation that God has raised up, we are levering ourselves just like the Israelites did because we want to show God that we are clever. We can’t go far. Nature must always take its turn! This is an indirect way of God telling us to be careful. From what the doctors are saying, with his diagram and everything, we can’t have a nation with a lame head of state,” he said.



Okogie, who frowned at those calling on President Yar’Adua not to resign, noted with emphasis that this calibre of Nigerians are praying for retrogression.

“Those, who are licking the boot of Yar’Adua, who still want him to be there whether dead or alive because of their ego, are praying for retrogression.

“The man is sick, and health, people say, is wealth. If he is not well cured, look at what is going to happen to the nation. Already it is happening and even his deputy has no power. What I am saying in effect is this: this man is sick. He cannot take the nation for a ride.”

Continuing, Cardinal Okogie noted that Nigeria is more than 150 million people and cannot be hanging on one person who is sick.

“It could have been a different thing if the Vice President has power. And like I read in one of the papers, he is trying to direct the nation on the telephone. Are we serious at all? This is the time for them to nip the thing in the bud. Those who are telling him not to resign should check their conscience,” he said.



the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, has said that the country cannot afford to have a lame man as president.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun, Cardinal Okogie who said many right thinking Nigerians had foreseen the present quagmire, blamed the present embarrassment the president’s health is causing the nation on former President Olusegun Obasanjo who he accused of foisting Yar’Adua on Nigeria.



According to Cardinal Okogie, “Nigeria is such a big and complex nation that no one can really understand it. We Nigerians think we are clever. We think we can cheat God. In all the aspects of life, things that Nigerians were not doing 40, 50, 60 years back, we are doing them today and that is why there is no progress in this nation and unless we look back, there will be no progress.

“Take for example, the under 17 national team, look at what happened. Look at our Super Eagles. There was a time the Super Eagles was a team to be reckoned with in the world. What have we today? Nothing. Secondly, Nigerians like to be deceived, to be flattered and as a result, we now have so many sycophants all over.



“The fear of God right now in Nigeria is almost gone and except for the mercy of God that is still holding us and as a result of that, there are so many quacks that call themselves prophets and prophetess and all what not and people, because they are gullible, are giving them chances to feed fat on the innocent ones, leaving the true God that we should serve and serving man, telling lies to one another.

“During the campaign that brought Yar’Adua to office, Obasanjo was the one talking and the man he was campaigning for hardly spoke. Only God knows why. It is not because he is not given the gift of speech, but if you want him in such an exalted position, at least, you must allow him to express himself to his people.



Obasanjo was the one doing everything but those of us who have eyes and who have ears and who still have our senses correct, saw that there was something fishy about it. Now, how can you take a whole nation like this for a ride?

“OBJ knows this man is not too well and look at what we are getting. Why put somebody like that there? And look at the results of the election we had. You saw how everything went zig zag, zig zag and till today, they are still having tribunal, tribunal and tribunal.



“A big nation like Nigeria, a nation that God has raised up, we are levering ourselves just like the Israelites did because we want to show God that we are clever. We can’t go far. Nature must always take its turn! This is an indirect way of God telling us to be careful. From what the doctors are saying, with his diagram and everything, we can’t have a nation with a lame Head of State,” he said.

Okogie who frowned at those calling on President Yar’Adua not to resign, noted with emphasis that this calibre of Nigerians are praying for retrogression.



“Those who are licking the boot of Yar’Adua, who still want him to be there whether dead or alive because of their ego are praying for retrogression.

“The man is sick, and health, people say, is wealth. If he is not well cured, look at what is going to happen to the nation. Already it is happening and even his deputy has no power. What I am saying in effect is this: this man is sick. He cannot take the nation for a ride.”

Continuing, Cardinal Okogie noted that Nigeria is more than 150 million people and cannot be hanging on one person who is sick.

“It could have been a different thing if the Vice President has power. And like I read in one of the papers, he is trying to direct the nation on the telephone. Are we serious at all? This is the time for them to nip the thing in the bud. Those who are telling him not to resign should check their conscience,” he said.

Nigeria needs a stubborn electoral commission –Iwu

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, yesterday said Nigeria requires a “stubborn” electoral commission for the country to succeed in its socio- political development.

Iwu who spoke at the 2009 Better Society Lecture organised by Champion Newspapers entitled “2011: Political Behaviour and the Future of Elections in Nigeria”, said

“When an individual exists, as is still found these days, who single-handedly picks all candidates for a political party in all elections, the views and preferences of majority of party members notwithstanding, the grief for democracy becomes apparent. Nigeria therefore needs a stubborn electoral commission to succeed.”

He decried what he called the concept of African big man when individuals become “a lord whose word is law and to whom all those around him must bow in Nigerian politics”. Although he acknowledged that the electoral system needed reform, he insisted that the problems that had dogged Nigerian elections over the years were steeped in personal indiscipline and inordinate ambition of political players rather than the available laws.

Senate President, David Mark, in his remark said the INEC chairman is the not the cause of the nation’s electoral woes and challenged politicians who have Iwu’s signature on their certificates of return to resign first before calling for his head.

“Every elected politician that has Iwu’s signature of his certificate of return and wants Iwu removed should resign first before calling for his head. Iwu is not the problem of the nation’s electoral woes but our attitude, the electoral act is not the problem we should change our mindset before electoral reforms can work in the country,” Mark said.

extracted from www.dailytrust.com

Deregulation: NLC to protest October 29

A coalition of labour unions and civil society organisations led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) announced yesterday that it would stage a protest rally in Abuja on October 29, 2009 to protest government’s moves to deregulate the downstream oil sector.

The coalition said in Abuja that contrary to government’s claims, deregulation will only worsen the plight of Nigerians because of the attendant rise in the prices of commodities and essential services that it would create.

Speaking at a press conference, NLC’s Deputy President Peters Adeyemi said, “We are clearly opposed to it because it will further worsen the plight of Nigerians. We can’t deceive ourselves; nobody can tell us here that deregulation and price increase will not affect anything. It will affect everything that we do and that will not augur well for Nigerians.”

He added, “What deregulation means to our government is increases in price of petrol and petroleum products because there is nothing else for us to situate that statement on; you move from N65 to N94. It clearly shows that government has nothing beyond the increase in prices of petrol and petroleum products.”

He said the planned rally that will include Nigerians from all walks of life will be peaceful but would strongly reject the policy of deregulation “which would take us back to the period of long queues and hoarding and would further worsen the plight of Nigerians.”

According to Adeyemi, the proposed rally is part of the strategies mapped out by the coalition to oppose deregulation and to call for full implementation of recommendations of the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee as well as for an increase in wages of workers.

The coalition also expressed worry with what it termed “the unusual zeal” with which Petroleum Minister Rilwanu Lukman was pushing the deregulation agenda, saying he was doing it for selfish reasons.

“We are also worried the Minister of Petroleum appears to be driving this process so hard. We are saying that he doesn’t have the moral justification to do what he is doing because we are aware that he has vested interests in some oil companies that stand to benefit from this deregulation. Whatever policy we are going to engage in this country should be a policy that will impact positively on Nigerians and not individual interests. When government functionaries are seen to be driving the process of policy implementation because certain agencies or companies for which they have vested interests are going to benefit, it then means that the policy is about serving self interest and not in the interest of the Nigerian people.”

Representatives of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Alliance for Credible Elections and the Civic Freedom Agenda, among others, all condemned the planned deregulation just as they urged all Nigerians to converge in Abuja on the 29th of October, 2009 to protest against it.

(extracted from: daily trust)

We’re ready to sink Germany –Siasia

As Flying Eagles prepare to face Germany today in the second round of FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, Coach of the team, Samson Siasia says the squad is set to improve on their poor performance in the preliminary stage.Siasia said his boys were ready and highly motivated to get victory against the Germans.“Everyone is working really hard now to get it right. We won’t let you down, we won’t let Nigerians down. The boys are ready.“We are lucky that we still qualified to the next round and God has brought smiles on us despite the first two games, and we are ready to turn things around.“We want to put in hard work and dedication and turn our fortunes around,” Siasia pledged.

Bank MD loots N97bn

Following the second round of banks’ audit exercise conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), officials of the apex bank found that a managing director (name withheld), whose shareholders have strong political influence in the current administration, allocated to himself share capital of N85 billion that is yet to be paid up. Daily Sun source also revealed that the same MD allocated shares to a local airline to the tune of N18 billion as corporate investments. The airline, the source said, denied knowledge of the deal. The bank MD is also alleged to have invested N12 billion depositors’ funds in a supposed subsidiary of the bank. The source said the company was found to be the MD’s private firm. The conclusion of the latest audit has already sparked fear in the financial sector. The CBN examiners were said to have concentrated on liquidity; loan verification such as loans to stockbrokers, petroleum products importers, performing and non performing loans; corporate governance issues; processes and resources spent on information technology. The funding is contrary to CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido’s conclusion that the remaining banks were not as bad as the others. According to him, he did not expect many surprises as the remaining 14 banks were not significantly different but latest development had proven him wrong. It was gathered that the apex bank was yet to conduct what they described as forensic accounting investigation on any of the 24 banks in the country. The managing director of at least one bank has reportedly visited the State Security Service (SSS), to deposit his passport. This is to prevent him from travelling abroad. Bankers are of the view that two or three banks may be affected by the decision of Mallam Lamido not to allow family banks in the country anymore. The CBN governor’s policy to end family owned banks, the bankers believed, may be partly responsible for the fate of Oceanic Bank and Intercontinental Bank, seen as being dominated by the personality of their managing directors. Sanusi at a forum on Wednesday while briefing capital market operators warned that CBN would not allow banks to be run as a sole proprietorship but as institutions that would imbibe the tenets of good corporate governance, promising to treat shareholders of the affected banks fairly and also ensure that, henceforth, banks in the country were run as institutions rather than as sole proprietorships. Sanusi also allayed fears of nationalizing the five troubled banks whose managing directors and executive directors were sacked following their gross misuse of shareholders’ funds and inability to meet up with other banking statutory obligations. The governor said the results of the remaining banks would be made known in October 2009, but opined that their results would be better than those of the 10 banks examined earlier from which five were summarily sacked. The CBN governor had on August 14 sacked the managing director of and executive directors of Afribank Plc, Finbank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Oceanic Bank Plc and Union Bank Plc. The examination was conducted by a joint team of CBN and NDIC officials. According to the CBN audit the major findings on the five banks were excessive high-level non-performing loans, which led to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and the absence or non-adherence to the bank’s credit risk management practices, leaving the percentage of non-performing loans from 19 per cent to 48 per cent. The five banks will, therefore, need to make additional provision of N539.09 billion. The total loan portfolio of these five banks was N2, 801.92 billion. Margin loans amounted to N456.28 billion and exposure to oil and gas was N487.02 billion. Aggregate of non-performing loans were N1,143 billion representing 40.81 per cent. The five banks accounted for a disproportionate component of the total exposure to capital market and oil and gas, thus reflecting heavy concentration to high risk areas relative to other banks in the industry. The five banks were either perennial net-takers of funds in the inter-bank market or enjoyed liquidity support from the CBN for long periods of time, a clear evidence of liquidity problem. In other words, these banks were unable to meet their maturing obligations as they fall due without resorting to the CBN or the inter-bank market. Further checks revealed that the outstanding balance on the EDW of the five banks amounted to N127.85 billion by end July 2009, representing 89.81 per cent of the total industry exposure to the CBN on its discount window while their net guaranteed inter-bank takings stood at N253.30 billion as at August 2, 2009. Their liquidity ratios ranged from 17.65 per cent to 24 per cent as at May 31, 2009. The banking regulatory minimum is 25 per cent as spelt out by the apex bank.

extracted from: www.sunnewsonline.com