Fuel scarcity worsens as tanker drivers begin indefinite strike

HOPE of early end to the current fuel scarcity across the country was yesterday dashed as members of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), began an indefinite strike over alleged extortion, harassment, brutality, arrest and detention of eight of their members by men of the Nigerian Navy at the Naval base, Apapa, Lagos.

But the Naval authorities have dismissed the tanker drivers allegations, describing tankers drivers as a group of unruly, undisciplined and people who have constituted a menace to other road users especially around the base.

Chairman of Western Zone of Chairman, Comrade Tokunbo Korodo, told Saturday Vanguard that members would not return to work until Naval authorities not only guaranteed the safety of members but also stop their men from extorting tanker drivers.

“For over a month now, men of Nigerian Navy, at the Naval Base Apapa, have been extorting tankers drivers before allowing them to pass through to NIPCO Plc depot to load products. Since the fuel scarcity started, they have been demanding between N5,000 and N30,000 from tanker drivers before allowing them to pass. Because of this, yesterday (Thursday), we held a meeting with their leaders who told us that if it is true that the tankers drivers are being extorted, we should take the identities of those involved and that if possible, we should take their photograph and get back to them.

So, this morning (yesterday), when they started, our members challenged them and resisted. The Chairman of NIPCO unit of PTD, Alhaji Ambali, who led others to challenge them was beaten to a coma. Eight of our members were arrested and detained at the Naval Base, Apapa, while many others were seriously brutalised. Other members had to run away to prevent the Naval personnel from brutalising and arresting them.

The Naval personnel were threatening to deal with any tanker driver seen around the vicinity. Because of that, members have decided to withdraw their services until further notice. So, members have since morning stopped lifting products.”

But the Naval authorities dismissed the tanker drivers allegation, describing them as a group of unruly, undisciplined and people who have constituted themselves into a menace on the road.

Speaking to Saturday Vanguard on telephone, Director of Naval Information, Commodore David Nabaida, said neither was any tanker driver arrested nor brutalised, stressing that even the allegation of extortion was unfounded.

He noted that contrary to the tanker drivers’ claims, “a tanker driver used his tanker to block the road and caused a heavy traffic. When our men came down to find out what was happening, the tanker driver abandoned the truck and ran away.

Our men had to tow the tanker to Naval dump site. This incident happened in the morning. Nobody was arrested or brutalised.

You know how these people behave. They are a group of unruly and undisciplined people who like to constitute menace on the road. Immediately, they started saying they would go on strike. Because they transport an important community needed by everybody, does that give them the right to block the road and prevent other road users from using the road?”

He challenged the tanker drivers to provide evidence of any extortion by his personnel and see if such officer would not be disciplined.
Vanguardngr

Iran Test Fires Improved Long-Range Missile

Iran has test-fired what it claims is an improved version of its Sejil 2 medium-range missile, Wednesday, amid ongoing tension with the West over its nuclear program.

State television showed video of the Sejil 2 missile launch Wednesday, calling the test a success. The Sejil 2 has a range of about 2,000 kilometers, making it capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in southeastern Europe.

Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi says the Sejil 2 is intended to defend the country against outside attack.

He says that the missile which tested Wednesday, is part of Iran's defensive forces, and that the test is intended to reinforce the deterrent capabilities of [Iran's] military. He says that the missile was built by Iranian scientists and is an upgraded version of the Sejil 2 [launched last May]. He adds that the newer version has a shorter launch time, better deterrent capability, and that it is a two-stage rocket using solid fuel that is highly maneuverable.

Both the test-firing and the sanctions vote come in the midst of an ongoing conflict between Iran and the West over its nuclear program. Tehran has not, as yet, agreed to the terms of a UN-draft deal to trade 70 percent of its low-grade uranium for highly enriched uranium from France and Russia.

The head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, told the country's Press TV, Wednesday, that "Iran prefers to procure the fuel (for its research) reactor through the (International Atomic Energy) Agency, .but, we can't afford to wait for long."

Meir Javedanfar of the MEEPAS center in Tel Aviv says that the Sejil 2 missile is nothing for the West to worry about. He says it is more a sign that it's taking the military option seriously, now that negotiations with the West appear to be faltering:

"There's nothing new about this rocket that should worry the West," he noted. "Iran has already tested solid fuel missiles before and Israel is already within the range of Iran's missiles. I think it's the political implications of this missile test that are noteworthy-and that is that Iran views the (nuclear) talks as dead-it doesn't view the talks positively, and now it's bracing for sanctions and quite possibly for war, and this missile test is a sign that Iran takes the military option very seriously and is ready to reciprocate if it's attacked."

Such tests, he adds, may also be aimed at frightening other countries in the region, like the Gulf States, or southern European nations that have U.S. or other Western bases on their soil, and might be involved in the logistics of an eventual attack.

President Barack Obama has said that the United States will not "wait indefinitely" for a response from Iran over the U.N. draft nuclear deal.

Iran's test-firing, comes a day after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impose sanctions on companies providing refined gasoline to Iran. Tehran is a major oil-producing country, but has just one domestic refinery, forcing it to buy much of its gasoline from abroad.
VOA News

CBN won’t allow stocks to crash again – Sanusi

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has said it would not allow the stock exchange to crash again adding that economic growth is now the focus of its policy
CBN Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi said this at the on going Nigeria Economic Summit holding in Abuja.

“The (equity) market will go back up but if it goes back to 2007 (levels), I will stop it. I will starve it of oxygen. I will shut down money supply,” he said.
“Now our primary concern is to ensure the economy does not go into recession and to stimulate growth. It is not time to put on the brakes,” he said.

Sanusi said credit to the private sector rose 20 percent between March and November and had risen successively each month in that period.

Consumer inflation rose to 12.4 percent year-on-year in November from 11.6 percent the previous month, the Bureau of National Statistics said earlier, as volatile fuel prices pushed up transport costs.
Vanguardngr

Tiger Woods to take 'indefinite leave' from golf

US golfer Tiger Woods is taking indefinite leave from professional golf to try to work on "healing" his family.

In a statement on his website, he said he was aware of the disappointment "my infidelity" had caused his family.

He said he wanted to "try to repair the damage done" and asked for privacy so his family "could heal".

In the UK, lawyers for the world number one golfer obtained an injunction preventing certain information purportedly about him being published.

On his website, Mr Woods said he was "profoundly sorry" and asked for forgiveness.

I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person
Tiger Woods

He said: "I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding.

"What's most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing.

"After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person."

He has been married to his wife Elin for five years and they have a two-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son.

In a statement the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour said it supported the golfer's decision, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said the celebrity's "priorities are where they need to be".

"We look forward to Tiger's return to the PGA Tour when he determines the time is right for him," he said.

Intense speculation

The UK injunction was granted by a judge at the High Court in London, and concerns alleged information which cannot be disclosed for legal reasons.

Last week Woods apologised to his family for "transgressions".

Speculation about his private life has been intense since he was involved in a car crash outside his Florida home.

Newspaper allegations followed about extra-marital affairs.

Woods has not been seen in public since the accident, in which his car hit a tree and fire hydrant.

The golfer, who was found bleeding and semi-conscious, was later charged with careless driving, which carries a $164 (£98) fine and four points on his driving record.

Woods has become an international sporting icon since winning his first major in 1997 at the age of 21.

At 33, he is just four short of equalling Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major victories and is regarded as one of the world's all-time great golfers.

BBC News

Beckham: I'm prepared for finals snub

David Beckham has admitted "nothing is guaranteed" when it comes to his hopes of playing for England at the 2010 World Cup finals. The former Three Lions captain will join AC Milan in January in a bid to prove his form and fitness to boss Fabio Capello but Beckham is prepared to be left out if he is not performing.

David Beckham
GettyImagesDavid Beckham captained England to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals.

The LA Galaxy midifelder has been in the public eye all week as he played a central role in helping steer England's 2018 World Cup bid back on track in South Africa, before participating in the draw for next summer's finals in Cape Town.

But with the likes of Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips and James Milner - who scored for Aston Villa on Saturday - all in contention for the right midfield berth, the former captain acknowledges that his participation in the main event is not guaranteed.

"I do not fear being axed for the World Cup. If I don't make the squad it's not going to stop me supporting the team,'' he said.

"Nothing is guaranteed, I have discovered that is true in my career. But if I can be part of it then it will be amazing.

"Everybody knows how much I love playing for my country but the manager will pick a squad he thinks will win the competition. That has to be the way.

"If I am not part of that, of course I'd be upset but it is something I would still respect. It would be because the manager felt it was right in terms of his system and having the best players in the team.

The 34-year-old has played at three World Cups for England, captaining the side in both the 2002 and 2006 finals, and while he admits his move to Serie A should improve his chances of selection, he is under no illusions as to Capello's policy for not picking in-form players.

"It still hurts that I was left out by Steve McClaren after I had resigned the captaincy but being picked for next summer is not something I take for granted.

"Going to Milan doesn't guarantee anything. It gives me a chance of being in the squad but it doesn't guarantee it.''
ESPNsoccernet

Sanusi incompetent to manage CBN

His Royal Majesty Timtiniko Enodien is the monarch of Eket, Akwa Ibom State. The monarch feels so bad about what goes on in the banking sector, especially the way the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) battles commercial banks and still threatens to do more.

Enodien is not just the ordinary observer of the development. He is a knowledgeable citizen in banking with a PhD in Public Finance, two previous degrees in Economics from universities of reputation in Europe and USA. He worked and retired as Permanent Secretary in the presidency and Federal Ministry of Finance. During his working years, he represented government interests as director in several banks. Therefore, he is at home with banking and its policies.

He feels livid with the way the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi manages the nation’s economy and is sure if the man is allowed to continue his way, the nation is economically doomed.

The old economist does not think Sanusi should be watched helplessly. It is either the president and finance ministry call him to order or he ruins the banking sector and ultimately the economy as he told Saturday Sun in his palace at Eket.

The question of how best the CBN can manage or correct itself on its present policies on commercial banks is a large one. But it could be broken down with time as our discussion progresses. The bottomline is that the CBN through its activities has been killing the banks and that is not proper. I begin to wonder whether the management of the apex bank actually knows what they are doing. Because the first thing to learn about banking is that bank is the most sensitive establishment or business outfit in the sense that you only need a rumour – real or imaginary to kill the bank totally. It is as easy as that and a good management of the apex bank will go by the rules. And the rule is that a bank is considered insolvent or inadequate if it doesn’t meet the depositors’ liability. Customers come to the bank and drop their money on trust that whenever they need it no stories would be told about it.

Therefore, if there is any problem in the banking sector, the CBN should rather manage it wisely instead of making a public show of it, otherwise you are invariably killing what you should protect. Listing a number of banks and declaring them insolvent before the public is in fact killing them before their real death. Assuming something was wrong, there are ways to handle it. There is what is called liquidity ratio in banking – the ration of cash and other easily realizable assets are mostly held by the CBN. Whenever there is imbalance in this or when it is not favourable, it is the duty of the CBN to find ways of correcting the anomaly and putting the bank back on track.

That intervention is intended to prevent the affected bank from going under. For instance, we heard of rescue measures by government in several economies during the meltdown. But meltdown is just somebody’s invention or coinage. It simply means a recession – a situation where there is less and reduced economic activity. Consequently, there is not enough money to buy goods and services and a backlash of further dull and slower economic activity as people lose their jobs. It leads to job loss, which swells the unemployment ratio that possesses the spending power that keeps the economy going.

That is why I wonder whenever I read that the CBN governor boasts that there are still more banks to go under his hammer whether he understands the implications of his actions. No good central bank does that or speaks that way as if to scare people, even foreign investors, or cause stampede in the economy. If things get so bad, the CBN investigates, looks at the liquidity ratio and looks at the books and calls the involved banks to order.

Banks survive on confidence. For instance, there is the N100 note. The value is nothing as a piece of paper. The real value is that confidence by the owner of a commodity who you give it in exchange for his goods who collects it because he knows the plantain seller, for instance, will not reject it in exchange for plantain. Any time he understands that the confidence of the seller of what he wants over the N100 he has is destroyed by any economic force or reason or policy of state, the N100 possesses no value at all. It actually turns to a piece of worthless paper. That is exactly the same with banks. When the confidence is destroyed, then nothing is left for the economy to survive on and that is exactly what the present CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is doing.

So, I keep wondering where we are going in a nation that talks about Vision 20: 20-20. I can assure you that with the CBN style of killing the banks it will not be real. In fact we have to heal the banks CBN governor killed before we talk of recovery, which will take so long. I say it many times over that the sector has been killed because the confidence has been thoroughly shaken. I still wonder and ask other Nigerians whether this CBN governor is solving the problem of the banks or helping in killing them.
I didn’t know of any such haste or policy change in the CBN management before Sanusi came in.

For instance, we heard of investigation of the banks before or after the announcement of sack of bank managing directors, yet certain things as we hear make us question that investigation and its outcome. But I know that the rule is after a team is sent out for investigation, you sit down with it and see the findings before taking action. Now the developments in the CBN try to show us there must have been procedures not properly followed or hastily executed.

Even when you find out from a proper investigation that something went wrong or that your investigations are accurate, you have no need blowing the outcome open to the public. You first of all sit down with the directors of the bank/s and reason with them on the best way to tackle the problem. If for instance the liquidity is poor and needs to be shored up or there are other problems, the CBN agrees with the directors on how to correct the anomaly. It will be the duty of the apex bank to give the affected bank limited time to comply and since they know the consequences of non-compliance, there are under obligation to do just that and find way of healing the bank. But if at last there is no common ground on finding solution to this problem, nothing in the books say the CBN should take over the banks or sit down somewhere and announce the sack or removal of the director or head of the banks. All these measures are set in place not to encourage unethical practices in the sector, but to guard against steps that could cause chaos and engender more damage to the economy by blowing it open that Bank A, K, or P is down and out.

Okay, there is the bank board of directors, and I ask in these drama we have witnessed, were they properly and adequately involvement before the action was taken. The board is answerable to the shareholders and that order should be respected and allowed. But for one man to go ahead and adopt all the powers as if the management of the CBN is one man’s business is unheard of. It can never happen in any enlightened and orderly society. So, the whole thing smacks of, I am sorry to say, ignorance. And the way banking system is run elsewhere I don’t think these managers of our CBN would have been allowed to continue with actions that would send us and our economy so many years backwards.

I have to tell you honestly that with this CBN style of banking sector management, nobody should continue to think of the actualization of the Vision 20: 20-20 dream.

Yes, there could be mismanagement of the bank by the management, but in what sense? Is it in unsecured loan? If that is the problem, then the board of the bank is still to be involved in finding ways of tackling the problem. An MD has limits in grant of loans, and every loan has accepted collateral to secure it. If a manager flouts the rule, the board has the power to discipline him, find a way of securing or recovering the loan or other reasonable steps that may be necessary. But blowing it out of proportion does not in any way solve the problem.

If the management went wrong by staffing the bank with unqualified manpower, that is another problem still left for the board to handle and there is a way out it. But there is never a time the solution will be someone sitting somewhere in Abuja and talking as if he has the ultimate and monopoly power of knowing everything about banking.

I was once a director representing the Federal Government in quite some banks, and sometimes, we jokingly discuss that most times when banking examiners come it is for the sake of formality. And if it is the same class of people I used to know who are after personal interest in their examination, I can’t imagine them being so patriotic to deliver a report of the real situation or state of the banks. I knew them as people who wrote a lot of irrelevances maybe because the people involved refused to play ball.
I feel so bad about this attitude of the CBN governor and to some extent about the Federal Ministry of Finance, because if the office knew what should be done the governor should be called to order before he does worse damage as he is boasting about taking on more banks. He has actually done so much damage that will take us generations to heal, what is the need watching him do more to bring total ruin to the economy beyond remedy.

What super humans are they in the Central Bank to take over and take charge of these banks and they are still bragging to do more. The boards of the banks are not there for nothing.
Even at my level then in the Ministry of Finance I used to advise the CBN governor on policies one felt was not too good. Sometimes he might visit me in my office or ask that I see him in his own office for a discussion on that. Nothing says the CBN governor knows all and should act as if he is the only one with knowledge of what should be done and at last expose the economy to serious problems instead of solving existing ones.

As a matter of fact, if the banks would tell you the truth, since the CBN started this destruction, deposits must have plunged drastically, and I am sure the culture of saving money under the pillow at home must have taken a rise because the depositor doesn’t trust the bank any more. Our meltdown, which others are already recovering from, is just commencing. I tell you that the CBN governor has caused our own local recession, which nobody knows when we will get out of it because he is still unrelenting in his ways and nobody wants to call him to order. We are certainly heading towards such crisis unless someone stops them. What is certain is that since the CBN governor has been allowed to continue the way he carries on, we are surely heading for worst times.

It looks to me like the CBN governor is probably knowledgeable in micro banking, bookkeeping, bank management and a good relationship in dealing with the customer. But the knowledge of the real banking, economic and monetary policies, which I will call macro banking is actually what you need to manage the CBN. It is a different case altogether because it is more of banking, monetary and economic policymaking and the effective combination of all.

However, I would not suggest to his employer to remove him, but if I had the power to do that myself or were his employer, I would not keep him.

And after doing this much damage, he still boasts and announces that many more banks will still go. If what we read about him is true, that means the CBN Governor does not mean well for the economy or does not know what to do or how to manage the economy of a nation with his position.
As I said earlier, there is recession – a time for downturn when activities slow down and production develops a negative trend. The major thing governments in other places do is to embark on projects that help to pump money back into the system and create jobs like real estate development.

Real estate or building projects is always the best option because it creates a lot of jobs, involves so many others sectors of the economy in procurement of items needed and creates assets that don’t depreciate in value easily. The materials they require from those sectors get them back on their feet. They don’t just dump money in banks as a way of fighting recession like we saw the CBN governor do after going against banks. I am even surprised that the Federal Government is not asking the governor questions on the reckless release of money to the involved banks.

I even ask if the banks the CBN is accusing were as reckless in issuing loans like the CBN has been in releasing money to them. What collateral has the CBN from the banks they are dumping money in to secure the liquidity? Because to retain these large sums of money in these same banks accused of non-prudent management is a question the CBN has not answered. At last we will find out that the problem will be worse than the one the accused banks created. The banks may have taken collateral for loans which are inadequate, but the CBN has ignored a basic rule of ensuring the banks have adequate facility to secure the money them pump into them to sustain the cash ratio balance.

To sustain my argument that the CBN investigation of the banks were grossly inadequate, I want to recall to you that few days after the CBN announced a bailout of N420b to the first five banks it moved against, these same banks said they didn’t need them because there were liquid enough. That goes to say that it is only in Nigeria what CBN is doing would be allowed to continue without a check. The FG in my view would have asked independent examiners to look at the books of the banks instead of allowing the CBN to run this type of show thereby making them the accuser, the jury and the judge.

The Federal Government for purposes of balance should not just accept everything they say as gospel truth.

My final word on this is that if the CBN is allowed to continue the way it does, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel for the commercial banks to retain their boldness, enjoy the confidence of the customer and play its vital role in the economy. That is why I keep saying that the federal government should put its feet down and save the situation from the hands of the CBN. The FG cannot save this economy without correcting this present inadequacy in the central bank. CBN is definitely not helping the economy or moving in the direction to do so. But if someone thinks otherwise and we decide to fold our arms and watch, we will see the doom very soon.
Sun News

Eagles to battle Argentine in South Africa 2010

The 2010 World Cup draws took place in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, before a world live and television audience of close to 200 million people with Nigeria, for the third time in 15 years, facing Argentina in Group B.

eagles3

After a colourful ceremony which started with a recorded message from South Africa’s 91 year old former president, Nelson Mandela and a welcome by President Jacob Zuma and FIFA president, Joseph Sepp Blatter, the draw proper started with FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke conducting affairs.

Ethiopian legend, Haile Gebrselassie made the first pick from pot three and it turned out to be Nigeria but with Valcke saying that two African teams could not be in the same group, Nigeria had to automatically move to Group B where Argentina seeded in the group will play the opening match with the Super Eagles.

Moments after the draw, Super Eagles coach, Shaibu Amodu told Supersports that he and his wards will not pay any special focus on Argentina because other teams in the group, Greece and South Korea are equally strong.

“I don’t want to focus on Argentina because other teams in the group are equally strong. We have to prepare well for all the teams and I think it will be nice to start well with Argentina,” Amodu said.

Continuing Amodu, who the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF has pledged total support for on the Eagles job told his interviewers that “It is possible to beat Argentina, they are beatable but it depends on how we prepare.”

Pressed to say how good his team is, Amodu quipped “I think the Eagles we are building now can come out of the group and possibly get to the quarter finals or semi finals.”

This will be the third time in World Cup history that both countries will be meeting each other in the same group. In Nigeria’s debut appearance in 1994 in the United States, Argentina, parading the great Diego Maradona, beat Nigeria 2-1 but the Clemens Westerhof-tutored side still went ahead to qualify for the second round.

Again in 2002 in Korea/Japan after Amodu was shoved aside for Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, the Eagles comprising rooky players like Femi Opabunmi and Barthlomew Ogbechie, stretched the former world champions to breaking point before the much more experienced Argentines drew from their bag of football tricks to pip the Nigerian side 1-0.

After the 1994 loss in the USA, Nigeria were pitched again with Argentina in the final of the Atlanta ‘96 Olympic Games football event where Nwankwo Kanu inspired his team mates to beat Argentina 3-2 for Africa’s first Olympic gold in football.

Nine years after the Olympic loss, Argentina took their revenge at the U-20 level in the Netherlands when Lionel Messi, re-enacting the Maradona prowess singlehandedly tore the Flying Eagles defence to help his country to the FIFA U-20 Wrld Cup crown, winning 2-1.

Again in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics, Samson Siasia who was in-charge in 2005 in the Netherlands had the ill-luck of confronting the same Argentina team with Messi supported by Sergio Aguero, a son-in-law of Maradona in the final of the football event and lost 1-0 to pick the gold.

Recalling the 1994 loss, Super Eagles assistant coach, Daniel Amokachi who was part of the USA’94 squad said after the draws yesterday that “we lost 2-1 to Argentina, a defeat we caused for ourselves”, but added that for the other group opponent, Greece who they equally met in 19994, “we beat Greece 2-0 in 1994 but football has really changed in that country now.”

Greece shocked the whole world in 2004 in Portugal when they beat stronger teams to emerge the European champions but in last year’s edition of the same championship, they were a shadow of themselves.

In the other pairings for the 2010 World Cup, host South Africa have a tough opening match with Mexico in Group A which also has Uruguay and France whose qualification is smeared in a Henry Thierry ‘hand of God’ assist that gave them the ticket.

England that have been rebuilt by Italian coach, Fabio Capello are in Group C with USA, Algeria and Slovenia while Africa’s first 2010 qualifier, Ghana are in Group D with Germany, Australia and Serbia. Group E has the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and Cameroon.

The mot successful World Cup country, Brazil are grouped in G alongside North Korea, Cote d’Ivoire and Portugal while current European champions, Spain will test their might against rising football country, Switzerland, Honduras and Chile.

Respected former South Africa president, Nelson Madiba Mandela said South Africa is “privileged and humbled” to be staging football’s greatest event, the Fifa World Cup in 2010.

According to him, “Sport has the power to inspire and unite people. In Africa, soccer enjoys great popularity and has a particular place in the hearts of people, which is why it is so important that the Fifa World Cup will, for the first time ever, be hosted on the African continent in 2010.”

“We feel privileged and humbled that South Africa has been given this singular honour of being the African host country. We must strive for excellence in our hosting of the World Cup, while at the same time, ensuring that we are going to leave a lasting benefit to all our people.

“The people of Africa learnt the lesson of patience and endurance in their long struggle for freedom. May the reward brought by the FIFA World Cup prove that the long wait for its arrival on African soil has been worth it… Ke Nako! It’s time.”

The groups tables are as follows

Group A – South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay and France
Group B – Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic and Greece
Group C – England, USA, Algeria and Slovenia
Group D – Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana
Group E – Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and Cameroon
Group F – Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia
Group G – Brazil, Korea DPR, Cote d’Ivoire and Portugal
Group H – Spain, Switzerland, Honduras and Chile

The Super Eagles of Nigeria will play Argentina in the opening match.

Vanguardngr

Nigeria farmers sue Shell over oil spill

A group of Nigerian farmers is suing Royal Dutch Shell, claiming that the oil firm polluted their land in the Niger Delta region.

The four farmers allege that oil spilt from the supply lines of a subsidiary of Shell contaminated fish ponds and farms, ruining villagers' livelihoods.

They will ask a court in the Netherlands for compensation and to force Shell to clean up the area.

Shell denies responsibility and says the court has no authority in the case.

In a separate case earlier this year, Shell agreed to pay millions of dollars to a group of Nigerians over alleged abuses of their rights in the delta region.

Although Shell paid compensation, it did not accept responsibility for rights abuses.

The current court case concentrates on a leak from a high-pressure pipeline on 26 June 2005 in Bayelsa State.

Lawyers for the farmers, who are backed by environmental group Friends of the Earth Netherlands, told the BBC's Network Africa programme that leak had effectively impoverished people in the delta.

"What we want is first that Shell should be compelled to go back to the communities and do a thorough clean-up of the environment," said Chima Williams.

"Then that Shell should pay adequate compensation to the people for loss of livelihoods."

Shell said it regretted the spillage, but said it was not responsible because the leak was caused by sabotage.

Several militant groups have been fighting in the delta region for years - often sabotaging pipelines and stealing oil to finance their activities.
BBC News

Stop me if you can Ngige dares Obi, Soludo

With electioneering campaigns getting to feverish pitch in Anambra State ahead of the February 6, 2010 gubernatorial election in the state, former governor Chris Ngige, a medical doctor, says he is sure of victory.

Dr Ngige who is hinging his hope to return to the Awka Government House on his performance during the 33 months he held sway as governor of the state after the 2003 general elections, said that no other governor had served the Anambra people better than he did.

In this exclusive interview with Daily Sun, the former governor looked at the political credentials of the other prominent candidates in the race and their political parties, saying that he is the man to beat in the February polls, adding that even if he chose to run under a “Goat Party” he will still win as the Anambra people have confidence in him.

Ngige, whose 33 months in office was turbulent as a result of severe opposition, blamed this on his estranged god-father, Chief Chris Uba, who, he said, had the backing of the Federal Government to make his administration difficult.

He told Daily Sun that his travails came because he refused to keep to the agreements his detractors extracted from him under duress.

He also looked at the Governor Obi administration, saying that the governor has not justified the huge allocation he has received going by what is on ground as dividends of democracy to the people just as he revealed the odds against the other candidates in the race. Excerpts:

You were here as governor for 33 months, what’s your experience like?
Well, the experience is one that is already in the public domain and with you people in the media you know what transpired in this state at that time. It was a 33 years which the opportunity presented itself to me whether to align with my people or to desert the people. I had a difficult choice to make and I chose the first option which was to stay with the people, but at very great cost, and the cost was serious in that it even entailed my placing my life on the line.

I came into office on 29th May 2003, and I met a state that was run down. The debt situation was a gigantic one, and the people lost faith in government business, they were helpless, so to say. Schools were closed down, hospitals were closed down, the economy of the state was lying prostrate on the ground, and I had to use my clinical mind to diagnose what was wrong and then applied some treatment as a clinician. There was a political clinical problem at that time. Luckily, and with great thanks to Almighty God I was able to do it because he had equipped me in my life’s journey with worthwhile experiences that I could not have bought in any market or any supermarket.

I had training as medical doctor, I had training as a civil servant for 18 years, I had training as a businessman for about seven years and I had training as a party officer in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I was Assistant National Secretary for another five years before I mounted the saddle. So, I was very much equipped and I decided to tackle the problem. The problem was god-fatherism and the parasitic elite. They held a stranglehold on the treasury of the state and believed that the state will be at their beck and call, to service them and their needs, I said no, and the battle ensued.

The Federal Government gang-up with my then godfather
Unluckily, for me they had the backing of the Federal Government at the time and so the thing snowballed into a fight between me and the Federal Government. The then Federal Government threw caution to the wind and decided to fight dirty, including at a point withdrawing my police security because a spurious judgment was gotten by my opponents. At one time they sent hoodlums here; they burnt down the paltry money of the state, public buildings were torched, my own office was burnt, and my government lodge was burnt while I was trying to sleep one fateful 18th November.

Anyway, I didn’t mind, I didn’t want that to distract me because I knew that at the end of the day only Chris Ngige will be held responsible for what happened when he was in charge of governance. So, I faced the issue of security with all boldness and when the police were withdrawn I had to faction out a local arrangement by which I got some men and we guarded the state and guarded my Government House. Those patriotic Anambra people, they volunteered themselves and their services and after that when the police came back, we synchronized them with the Nigeria Police. I am happy to tell you that the crime rate was very low here then, there were no kidnappings at that time and there were no violent robbery of homes or even cash at the banks like it is happening today.

In terms of infrastructural development, the people here move about a lot, they are mercantile people, they are traders and they would like to move from one market to another. So, I have to do an arterial network of roads that are interlinked…

How was the opposition in Anambra created?
They were created by many forces; first of all, some of them were created by the military. It’s not a secret that it was during the past military regimes that people got jobs for which they didn’t do and pocket the money. So, it continued, and so when my predecessor Mbadinuju (Chinweoke) came here they came out again. As a matter of fact they tried it with Okwadike, that’s Chukwuemeka Ezeife, but Okwadike you know is a strong fellow and strong willed, and, of course, they looked at him and saw that there was even no money in the state at the time so they left him.

If you remember then Okwadike could hardly pay salaries and he told people to choose to come to work three times in a week so that the salaries would be reduced.

But during Mbadinuju’s time, they became more ferocious, it was a pure civilian regime, during Okwadike it was a diarchy with Babangida at the helm of affairs. So, they wrestled Mbadinuju to the ground and he surrendered and with that surrender a lot of things started going wrong. So, the creation started from the military, but was accentuated during the civilian democracy of Chief Obasanjo (Olusegun). He believed in god-fatherism, he believed in cutting corners, he believed in so many things that are not straight forward and so the people had a field day not only in my state, but in other states.

But my own was more pronounced because I resisted and they became violent and decided to remove me by force whether I liked it or not. That resulted in the famous or notorious July 10 abduction as they called it, and my forceful removal from office and my deputy was called to take over. So, one would have thought that after that they would keep quiet, but they continued.

But all that is now history, the history books have recorded everybody, they have recorded me, they have recorded them, they have recorded Chief Obasanjo and none of us can change it. Historians keep on writing, so I had my eyes on history and I decided to do the right thing to be on the right side of history.

If the federal authorities at that time did not support your opponents, do you think you would have served out your tenure?
Of course yes, I would have served out my tenure. A lot of unorthodox things happened at that time, INEC was under the Federal Government, and if you are going for election petition, you would, of course, need INEC to support their result and in my case it was not so. INEC was totally against me, even the results my field officers did not collect, for us to get ours from INEC to make our defense at the tribunal became a very difficult thing. It was impossible and we never got it.

The federal authorities then connived, that’s my opponents, my tormentors in-chief, connived with the present day governor, Mr Peter Obi, and I don’t know what they did, they knew what they did, but you cannot hide anything for too long. There was collusion between the two of them, they worked together at the tribunal and they worked with INEC, they worked with them even up to the Court of Appeal to the extent that INEC even made a detour, singing a new tune at the Court of Appeal for a cancellation of the entire results. All these were based on the fact that they wanted a fresh election and they believed that in a fresh election PDP will be pressed not to present me, that also culminated in my famous suspension from PDP and eventual expulsion for no just cause. Expulsion without trial, expulsion that even the courts quashed and said that it was wrongly done. But the role of the then Federal Government was that of a Federal Government that wanted to annex every state and for me they regarded me as a state that has refused to pay tribute and pay royalty to the head of the fiefdom.

My battle with Chris Uba
I said no, the Igbo spirit in me will not even allow that because I am a pure and refined Igbo man, I am a proper Igbo man. A lot of people do not understand what happened, they talk about agreement, no agreement, Ngige didn’t keep agreement to do this or that. Which agreement, an agreement that was illegal, an agreement that was procured under duress? We never talked about payment of money or even signing off of political offices when I started, but all these were just brought later when the elections were near and even at gunpoint. And, of course, if you are a good tactician; a good general must be alive to plan for a fresh battle. So, I have to be alive, therefore, I have to agree to what they were saying for me to be alive and then draw a new battle plan.

That battle plan I drew especially when they tried the abduction.
I was even ready to give some commissionership and things like that; I was ready because at the end of the day it is Anambra people that must be appointed.

The only thing I said was that on quality of the people I gave my specification, qualification and wealth of experience; that was what I did. I said that you can appoint, but, for example, my Attorney-General should be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). If you bring Commissioner of Finance, no problem, but he must be a chartered accountant, that was my prescription for the man for the job and, of course, they misunderstood it and said oh, he doesn’t want us to appoint somebody we liked. They now formed themselves into a cabal and started plotting for my removal from office, if possible even to kill me. We give thanks to God that all those things came to naught.

You have told us that when you became the governor of this state in 2003, what you met on the ground was nothing to write home about, that everything was in disarray. Incumbent Governor Obi also made the same claim. Does it mean that you left the state like that, what were your major achievements?
The incumbent governor knows that he was lying, it’s either he was lying or he is ignorant of the workings of government or both. I think it was a case of both, I’m more inclined to believe that because even the blind saw that my government worked, they felt my government’s action with their feet, with their hand and with their ears they could hear. So, how can the governor say that, the governor was trying to score cheap political points at that time.

And, of course, he came in with bitterness, he was bitter, he had complained loudly that I took away his mandate for 33 months and that he was only left with 17 months to serve. During that time he believed that he was to serve out the residue of my tenure of four years. If you remove 33 months from 48 months, you have about 15 months. So, he was jittery and bitter and was looking for excuses to haul abuses on me. Otherwise, I left N4.8 billion here for him on credit, a thing that is not done in Nigeria.

People meet empty treasury, but I had in the bank cash of about N8.5 billion. I had counterpart funding with voluntary agencies, with the Universal Basic Education Commission and others to the tune of about N3.3 billion, making it N11.8 billion. I had in excro account money, because I went to court for a court injunction stopping the payments of those monies to those who took LPOs from two, three phoney contractors who were being paid monthly even though their jobs were no longer going on, I had about a billion naira there.

Proof of monies I left in Anambra treasury and my legacies
So, when the governor started saying there was nothing here, there was nothing he didn’t accuse me of. He set up a committee led by Hon. Justice Ononiba, a former retired Chief Judge of this state, with members like Dr. Tim Menakaya, eminent people like Engr. Ajulu Uzodike and the rest of them. The committee came out with their report and said in all the books of Anambra State government, in all the bank accounts of Anambra State government, in the counterpart funding of Anambra State and treasury, they found N11.8 billion as what was left by Dr. Chris Ngige’s administration.
Sun News

EFCC gives bank debtors 2-week ultimatum

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday gave debtors of recently bailed-out banks two weeks to pay up or face another round of action.

Also, the anti-graft yesterday docked a former Ambassador to Spain, Ambassador Yusuf Yaro Mamman, before an Abuja High Court sitting in Lugbe, for allegedly spearheading the diversion of funds earmarked for the establishment of Aso Television station in Abuja.

The agency said it is focusing on Other Financial Institutions, OFIs, in its efforts to rid the country of money laundering and what it calls ‘terrorism financing’ .

Bank debtors get 2-wk ultimatum

The latest ultimatum to bank debtors is coming following reports from the affected banks that most of the debtors had reneged on their promise to pay up within a stipulated period.

According to the Head, Media and Publicity of the anti-graft agency, Mr. Femi Babafemi, yesterday, “It is worrisome that those that made part payments with a promise to pay up within a certain period following the intervention of the EFCC, have failed on their own terms.

“It is therefore necessary to remind them that the recent withdrawal of the EFCC operatives from the affected banks should not be misconstrued or taken advantage of.

“Since our investigation of the criminal flavor of these loans is still on-going, we therefore wish to warn those that have reneged on the repayment terms not to be taken by surprise at the end of the latest two weeks grace when the Commission shall again move decisively against defaulters.

“It is our wish to round off our operations in the affected banks by the end of the year so that the banks can run smoothly without any further interference from next year.

“As such, it is imperative that all concerned should make haste to fulfill their promises to enable the Commission concentrate fully on the prosecution of those already found culpable.”

Ex-Ambassador Mamman docked

Ambassador Mamman, who was hitherto the Chairman Board of Directors of Aso Radio and Television Abuja and one-time national chairman of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, was said to have conspired with three of his board members on February 5, this year, to dishonestly misappropriate about N300 million belonging to the establishment.

The other accused persons who were also arraigned yesterday by the EFCC over the fraud were Mr. Ahmed A. Ishaq, Mr. Ahmed Tafida and Mr Sani Ja’afaru.

The embattled former envoy and his board members however entered a plea of innocence to the entire 9-count criminal charges that were read to them by the court clerk.

They were granted bail in the sum of N5million each by trial Justice Olukayode Adegbola Adeniyi who adjourned further hearing in the matter till February 4, next year

Four of them were specifically alleged to have conspired to obtain credit facilities totaling about N25million, dishonestly siphoned about N130 million meant for the establishment of Aso TV and further shared amongst themselves another 22,280 Euros allegedly secured through an illegal transmission of ‘Aso Radio International’ radio station.

The EFCC, further alleged in the charge sheet that while about N1.5million was used by the accused persons to lodge in an Hotel in Abuja, that about N8.6 million was latter traced to a Zenith bank account, which they were said to have opened in the name of one Sunday Ibok.

Their act according to the anti-graft agency, contravened section 97(1) of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Abuja) 1990, Article 801 of the Financial Regulation and punishable under section 309 of the Penal Code Act.

EFCC probes other Financial Institutions

EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, said yesterday that the agency will henceforth, focus attention on Other Financial Institutions, OFIs, in its efforts to rid the country of money laundering and what it calls ‘terrorism financing’.

The OFIs, which the EFCC Chairman said have become weak link in the war against money laundering in Nigeria include Discount Houses, Primary Mortgage Institutions and Micro-Finance Banks.

Mrs. Waziri who was represented by Emmanuel Akomaye, Secretary to the Commission, made the remark at the Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing training/seminar, organised by the EFCC through the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, for other financial institutions.

“Focussing on the OFIs or strengthening AML/CFT measures within the OFIs sector will help us weed out unscrupulous operators who have brought disrepute to other sectors; enhance business transparency and promote legitimate private business growth; provide a fair and enabling environment for all OFI operators; increase investors confidence thereby attracting more investment and facilitate the prevention and detection of money laundering and all associated predicate offences,” Waziri said.

Budget row: Yar’Adua summons Mark, Bankole

President Umaru Yar’Adua has summoned the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives — David Mark and Oladimeji Bankole — over the 2010 budget presentation row which has pitched the two legislative chambers against each other.

Presidency sources disclosed in Abuja, yesterday, that the president decided to wade into the matter with a view to amicably resolving what has clearly been considered in many quarters as an unnecessary battle of ego in the federal legislature which prevented the president from presenting the budget to a joint session of the lawmakers last Thursday.
Senate President, Chief David Mark, who is the Chairman of the joint session had decided that the 2010 federal budget be presented to the joint session in the Senate Chambers but that decision was rejected by Speaker Bankole.

The argument of the House of Representatives leadership was that previous budgets were presented to joint sessions in the Chambers of the House of representatives, Chambers and that as such members of the House would not go to the Senate Chambers for the occasion.
Mark, Bankole and Yar'Adua

Mark, Bankole and Yar'Adua

Presidency sources said that the President had to call the two leaders of the two chambers to work out an amicable resolution of the rift in the interest of the nation.

It was learnt that although the constitutional requirement is for the president to cause the budget to be laid before the legislature and that as such it was not necessarily compulsory for him to physically present it nor even read the budget proposal before the legislators but that resolving the conflict was considered critical for an effective legislature .

“The requirement of the law is that the president should cause the budget to be laid before the legislature. What that means is that the president does not have to personally take the budget there. He can as well direct the Minister of Finance to present it.

But for how long can the two chambers work at cross purposes? What good can come out of such a situation? sources wondered.

President Yar’Adua, it was learnt, did not want to interfere in the matter but the sources said the presidency did not want the “supremacy struggle” in the legislature to degenerate into a situation that could undermine government’s efforts at an early budget for 2010.

It was learnt that the presidency had held several meetings with the leadership of the National Assembly on the need to work together to enable the legislature pass the 2010 Appropriation Bill next month and therefore does not want anything capable of disrupting the arrangement.

There have been claims and counter claims between the two chambers which have been locked in supremacy war since the Constitution Review Committee episode in Minna, Niger state capital, early this year, when the committee’s assignment was disrupted over the Co-Chairmanship issue.

Opinions have been divided over the venue of the Joint Session of the two chambers with most people berating the House of Representatives leadership for insisting that members were not junior to Senators.

Some have argued that since the Senate President is the Chairman of the Joint session, he reserves the right to decide the venue of the joint session and that only last week, when the Queen of England addressed the Joint Session of the British Parliament, the event took place in the House of Lords, with most members of the House of Commons standing throughout the session.

Those in support of Mark also argue that it was wrong for members of the House of Representatives to claim equality with the Senators, going by the size of their constituencies and the constitutional age qualification for the two chambers.

According to the Constitution, one must attain the age of 35 to be elected Senator, while a members of the House of Representatives must have attained the age of 30.

The position of the Office of the Speaker was that the leadership of the House was not consulted on the issue of the venue before the decision was taken by the Senate President.

Senators adamant

Meantime, President of the Senate, Chief David Mark, is under strong pressure from Senators not to succumb to pressure in the face-off with the House of Representatives over the venue for the joint session for the presentation of the 2010 budget by the President.

A resolution of the crisis was not possible at the weekend Vanguard learnt, because of the retreat by the House of Representatives committee on Constitution Review that ended in Calabar last weekend.

With the principal officials back in Abuja yesterday trouble shooting efforts, Vanguard learnt could crystallize into a solution of the unprecedented crisis.

However, supporters and foes of the Senate President within the Senate chambers were unanimous at the weekend in backing their presiding officer’s stance that any joint session with the House of Representatives should be held in the Senate chambers with some insisting that House members who do not find seats should stand for the period of the address.

Others were, however, calling for a strict adherence to the provisions of the constitution which require the President to separately lay his financial proposals before each chamber of the National Assembly.

The leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives are meanwhile expected to meet one another at another reconciliatory meeting being hosted by the PDP today. Ahead of the meeting, Senators were at the weekend articulating their grievances against their fellow legislators in the House of Representatives with the alleged disrespectful attitude of the House of Representatives members at the top of the pack of the grievances.

One leading Senate official told Vanguard at the weekend that the face-off could be resolved today for to the presentation of the budget on Wednesday.

However, Senators are expressing strong opposition to any back down with some vowing not to go to the chambers of the House of Representatives.

“There is no way I can ever go there (House) and David Mark can well go but certainly not me,’’ one Senator speaking on the condition of anonymity told Vanguard at the weekend.

Mark chides AC

However, Senator David Mark has rebuffed the intervention of the Action Congress (AC) into the face off between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Responding to a statement by the AC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed where he was quoted as saying that Mark had now seen the light, Mark described the AC publicity scribe as a noisemaker who thrives in castigating public officers even when he can never win a councillorship election.

Senator Mark in the statement authored by his Special Adviser (Media) Kola Ologondinyan said, “At times like this , many interest groups and political jobbers find a window to make comments rightly or wrongly. Everyone is entitled to his opinion though. However, the AC statement through its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed is amusing and clearly off the mark.

“He alleged that the President of the Senate, David Mark has seen the light because he now realised that “the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) is the problem with Nigeria ”.

“That is not correct. The Senate President is a product of the PDP and he remains committed, faithful and loyal to the party.

“He merely pointed out the fact that Elders of the party should not sit down and fold their arms when some members flagrantly flout the rules especially the constitution. He insisted that the constitution is supreme and should not in any way be compromised if Nigeria is to make progress.”

“If Lai Mohammed is not abreast with facts and realities, he should not wake-up from the wrong side of his bed to throw mud at people, especially the distinguished President of the Senate who has paid his dues in all ramifications.
Vanguardngr

Gani’s chamber riles CBN on IBB golf sponsorship

The law Chambers of the late Gani Fawehinmi, yesterday condemned the alleged sponsorship of the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor’s Golf tournament by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), describing the gesture as “regrettable and show of rascallism.”

In an open letter to Nigerians signed by Mr Mohammed Fawehinmi, a copy of which was made available to Saturday Vanguard, the chambers said that the efforts by the CBN through its Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido to advert in the dailies and sponsor the said golf tournament was a show of rascalism and recklessness by the CBN and its Governor, especially when the fortune of the country and its citizenry were nothing to write home about.

The statement read : “ It is regrettable that a man who should be occupied and concerned with salvaging the dwindling economic fortunes of Nigeria and the unstable financial system has the time to think, let alone collaborate with the IBB International Golf & Country Club to organize a golf tournament in honour of a self_styled military president whom so many conscientious Nigerians have condemned.

“What is more painful is that he (CBN Governor) had the effrontery to use our funds (Nigerians) to sponsor this advert in the name and on behalf of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

All these show of rascallism on the part of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi justifies my questioning of his competence as the Governor of Central bank of Nigeria – who is at the helm of affairs of the Central Bank of Nigeria as an institution which is saddled with the responsibility of controlling and supervising other financial institutions and on whose hand the economy of Nigeria revolves.”

He condemned the nonchalant attitude of the government to the plights of Nigerians and the financial system that is still struggling to get out of the woods and the sheer waste of the country’s resources by the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor.

He said with the steps the CBN Governor is taking, “the financial and banking sector of this country will suffer from the policies Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi will enact and set in motion as the man at the helm of affairs of the Central Bank of Nigeria which will further impoverish Nigerians.”

Terim eyes for Amodu’s job

Former Turkey coach, Fatih Terim is ‘open’ to the idea of coming in as Technical Adviser for the Nigeria national team, as the country looks for support for current coach, Shaibu Amodu. Other names under consideration are Russia coach, Guus Hiddink and Republic of Ireland coach, Giovanni Trappatoni.

The last two are contingent on their respective countries failing to secure a spot in South Africa after the conclusion of the UEFA qualifying playoffs this Wednesday.

The Super Eagles qualified for the 2010 World Cup last Saturday, but Head Coach Amodu, who has a two and half year contract, has not enjoyed the support of the local media or the fans, and has been under fire for most of the qualifying campaign.
The situation led to the Nigerian government setting up a Presidential Task Force to help deliver the World Cup ticket.

With that is in the bag, it is understood that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) have now been given a directive ‘from above’ to ensure that a ‘Technical Adviser’ is in place by December at the very latest.
The former AC Milan, Galatasaray and Fiorentina coach, is not only interested in the job, but has been suggested to the top hierarchy of Nigerian sports.
Terim boasts of an impressive CV in European football. The only black mark in his managerial career being his five-month stint at AC Milan.

In 1996, he qualified Turkey for the European championships for the first time in the country’s history.
Following Euro 96, where Turkey failed to win any game, he joined Galatasaray, and led them to four consecutive league titles, two Turkish Cup titles and the UEFA Cup in 2000.

With Fiorentina, he reached the Final of the Coppa Italia, eliminating AC Milan in the process and in his unhappy stint at Milan, he won the TIM Cup.
He returned to the Turkey job in 2005 and qualified them again for the Euros, this time, reaching the semifinal of Euro 2008.
But he was forced to resign when Turkey failed to even make it to the playoffs of the 2010 World Cup qualifier, finishing third, 15 points behind group winners, Spain and 4 points behind second-place Bosnia and Herzegovina.


Sun News

UK stocks surge in global rally

World stocks have risen on optimism about a global economic recovery, with UK shares reaching a 14-month high.

The Standard and Poor's 500 index was at a 13-month high, with stocks in Europe and through Asia also higher.

Stocks were buoyed after US retail sales rebounded sharply in October, while oil prices surged more than 3%.

In the UK, miners such as Rio Tinto and Xstrata surged as other commodity prices such as copper rose, and gold prices touched a new record.

The UK's benchmark FTSE 100 index closed up 1.6%, or 86.29, to 5,382.67.

Rising confidence

In the US, all three indexes were higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.3% and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.6%, while the Nasdaq index was also higher.

Crude oil rose by $2.55 to $78.90 a barrel in New York, sending US energy stocks higher.

The world's biggest non-state-owned oil company, Exxon Mobil, surged 2.9%.

American Express added to the optimism. Its shares gained 3.5% after it said loan defaults fell for a sixth straight month.

The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 1.4%, rebounding strongly after September's fall of 2.3%, spurring gains in US retailers like Saks.
BBC News

Deregulation: We’ll ground Nigeria - NLC, TUC

Nigerians had better brace up for yet another mother-of-all-strike by the organized labour if the federal government goes ahead with its planned deregulation of the downstream oil sector. To be led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the labour unions have dared the government to totally remove the subsidy on petroleum products and risk grounding the country.

This followed the collapse of talks between both parties.
The unions vowed that they will deploy industrial action as a means to make the government realize its folly in the pursuit of the total deregulation policy.
The NLC president, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, in a telephone interview, however said the congress would use strike action as a last resort.

“We cannot rule out industrial action because everybody, government and labour so far have gone back to their respective positions,” he said.
Omar however said the congress’ position would be conveyed to Nigerians when its recently inaugurated l0-man committee finalizes its work.
He noted that the NLC does not consider the meeting with the government as deadlocked and that there was still room for dialogue.
“As far as NLC is concerned, we have decided to have another look at our position. That is why we decided to set up the committee whose report will guide us subsequently,” he stated.

The NLC president however explained that the congress had always been guided by well-articulated reasons and would only see reason with the government if things were put in proper perspective.
“We have always advanced that the refineries should work, there must be a system of mass transportation, good roads and some other things that will cushion the effects on the Nigerian masses. Provided these are in order, government cannot find an ally in labour,” he warned further.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) president general, Comrade Peter Esele, on his part, said the senior workers association had called its three major organs - National Administrative Council (NAC), National Executive Council (NEC) and Central Working committee (CWC) - to a meeting this week to deliberate on the issue.
“I would not like to pre-empt my national organs but when we meet next week, we will take a decisive position on the issue of deregulation,” he said.

Esele however said although he would not be pre-empting the government, he believes the agitation would follow the usual trend.
“I still see this government doing what they used to do in the past, which will be met by Aluta. Then we will meet all the parties at the negotiation table,” he said.
The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), an affiliate of the NLC, likewise promised to support the congress in making the strike effective anytime it is called.
The union said it would withdraw the vehicles of its member from the roads.

FG courting trouble – David-West
Former Minister of Petroleum, Prof Tam David-West, advised President Umaru Yar’Adua to resist the temptation of deregulating the downstream oil sector to avoid jeopardising the stability of the present administration.
Speaking with Sunday Sun in a telephone interview, David-West warned of dire consequences if Yar’Adua allows his advisers to mislead him with cooked books and false reasons about the desirability of the move.
He dismissed the arguments of those who are pro-deregulation, describing them as fraudulent, deceitful and self-serving.
According to him, it is the mafia and their cronies who mismanaged the oil industry and sabotaged the local refineries to justify fuel importation that were behind the clamour for deregulation in order to fleece helpless Nigerians.
“There is a limit to which people can endure suffering. There comes a time when people will say to live is like dying. So, we prefer to die.

“St Augustine said, rebellion against bad government has the support of the gods. Edmund Burke said government is a contrivance of human wisdom. Men have a right to expect that this wisdom will also meet their many demands,” he added.
The Professor of Virology called on the labour unions to mobilise Nigerians in protest against deregulation.
“If labour cannot go on strike now, they are useless and should shut up forever. No time is better than now to go on strike on this issue,” he insisted.

The former Minister wondered why the common man should be allowed to suffer the failure of successive administrations to address the problem of the oil sector.
“I am advising Yar’Adua not to do anything that will put more pain on the masses of this country. Already, the system is mostly unjust to the ordinary people, most asymmetrically immoral against the ordinary man.
“We have a system in which a Senator who hardly contributes in parliament earns N3million a month and that same system cannot give N7,000 to a hardworking labourer as monthly pay.
“My position is that if your refineries are working, you will have no need to import refined products.”

It’s shameful FG can’t fix refineries – Igini
Condemning the proposal, social commentator, Mr Mike Igini, said the government’s move to deregulate the sector was a result of incompetence to manage the nation’s four oil refineries.
He contended that since 1978 when the whole idea of deregulation started, the government’s argument has always been the same.
“I have said it over and over again that government’s deregulation is a result of incompetence. Since 1978 when the whole idea of deregulation started, government’s argument has always been the same. But it has consistently broken its promises in terms of the usage of the proceeds from the removal of oil subsidy. Forty-eight years after the country’s independence, there is no infrastructure to justify the removal of subsidy,” he lamented.

Speaking further he said, “I think the whole idea of deregulation is not bad. Deregulation means that government is pulling out all the things that are making it difficult for private businessmen to thrive in the oil industry.”
But he took a swipe at those who compare the oil sector with the telecommunication industry.
“Deregulation in the oil industry is not the same with the telecommunication industry. It was easy for MTN and ECONET to bring in their machines and start operation but it will take at least six years to build a refinery,” the social critic stressed.
For Igini, deregulation is coming up at this time because of government’s failure to manage the country’s four oil refineries. “It is importation deregulation,” he said.

On the economic implication of deregulation, Igini said: “The move will cause untold inflation because the multiplier effect of N100 per litre of petrol will jerk up prices of cassava, yam, vegetables as well as gari. It will affect all the stakeholders in the country because prices of essential commodities will be twice what they used to be before deregulation.”

Protest ‘ll be worse than ASUU strike - CLO
Chairman of the Lagos chapter of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Comrade Eneruvie Enakoko, called on Nigerians to resist the planned deregulation of the downstream sector.
Speaking in an interview with Sunday Sun, the CLO leader said politics and the economy of the Nigeria has been too volatile on the masses to be able to handle the pressure of deregulation.
Urging Nigerians to prepare to sustain a strong resistance through strikes and demonstrations, Eneruvie said if the government remains adamant about deregulation, the CLO along with labour unions, other civil society groups as well as every Nigerian would take to the streets in protest.

“It will be worse than the ASSU strike because not only are we going to protest, we are going to sustain the protest. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor to the oppressed. It must be demanded by the oppressed. The privileged groups who oppress the people must be confronted by the people.”
Describing our leaders as wicked and insensitive to the plight of the common man, he advised that government instead should regulate the downstream sector, while embarking on massive repair and installation of basic infrastructure.
His words: “What government should embark on is proper regulation of the downstream sector. While repairing the refineries, government should also take steps to provide petroleum products at a cheap price. When fuel price went up internationally, government did nothing and it went up in Nigeria too. When it came down, nothing was also done apart from bringing it down by N5. That is wickedness to a people in their own property.”



Sun News

Jose Mourinho ready to return to the Premier League

Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has alerted his potential suitors in England by admitting he would welcome a return to the Premier League with a club where he can found a lasting legacy.

Jose Mourinho

GettyImages

Jose Mourinho was dubbed 'The Special One' upon arriving at Chelsea

Mourinho, currently managing Italian club Inter Milan, has been sorely missed in England since he departed Stamford Bridge in September 2007 having won back-to-back Premier League titles as well as the FA Cup and two Carling Cups.

His charisma and wit won him many admirers during his three-and-a-half years in the country and in Italy he has only built on his reputation by winning Serie A at the first attempt last season.

Reports continue to link Mourinho with a possible role at Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson finally retires and the Portuguese has made it very clear that he feels England is the best environment for him to try and emulate the Scot by achieving sustained excellence over an extended period at one club.

"Clearly it is unrealistic to expect to stay at a club as long as Sir Alex, but I am ready for the next phase of my career," Mourinho told the Times. "I want to work with a different perspective.

"At Porto, my objective was to win to earn the right to go abroad. At Chelsea, my ambition was to create a bit of history. But I always knew Chelsea lacked the normal English culture of stability.

"I was never under any illusions. I understood the personality of Roman and the culture of the people around him and knew it was not a job for ten years. My role was to give this man what he wanted - victory - knowing that, sooner or later, my time would finish, because there were too many things going on around me.

"In Italy, I was coming to the motherland of tactics, the country of catenaccio and defensive football. The objective was to win not only in a third different league but a place where they say foreign coaches have had little success. But the time will come for stability.

"I love Inter and would love to build for the future here. In fact, I am doing it now, because I am not a selfish coach and I'm thinking about the future in terms of youth development and the age structure of my first team - but Italy is not the country for this. England is the country. And my football is English football."

Eurozone emerges from recession

The eurozone economy has emerged from recession after growing between July and September, figures have shown.

The 16 nations that use the euro collectively grew 0.4%, after shrinking by 0.2% between April and June.

The French and German economies both grew for a second consecutive quarter, confirming the eurozone's two largest economies are out of recession.

However, both France and Germany grew by less than expected, a sign of how tentative signs of recovery remain.

The European Union as a whole - which includes non-eurozone countries such as the UK and Sweden - also emerged from recession, growing 0.2% in the third quarter.

Germany's economy grew by 0.7% in the quarter, while France grew by 0.3%. Both economies and Japan ended year-long contractions in the second quarter of the year, while the US has since joined them after its economy grew in the third quarter.

However, the UK remains in recession, having contracted by 0.4% between July and September.

The UK, Europe's second largest economy, has now contracted for six consecutive quarters, the first time this has happened since quarterly figures were first recorded in 1955.

Faster recovery


ANALYSIS
Nigel Cassidy
Nigel Cassidy, business reporter, Brussels

Every recovery is different and the slow crawl out of recession in the eurozone countries is no exception.

This time it's continental European exporters who are responsible for most of the new growth - and that in spite of an uncomfortably strong euro, without which firms would have undoubtedly sold even more goods to faster growing markets overseas.

In the main, consumers have not changed their behaviour - retail sales have risen slightly but unemployment is still rising, and will do for many months to come.

Economists are quick to point out that a great deal of the growth is thanks to economic stimulus packages which are bolstering European economies.

Germany alone is currently lending 85bn euros of its taxpayers' money.

Nobody can even guess what will happen to growth when national governments stop pumping credit into the system - as the European Commission is urging them to do within two years.

Why is UK still in recession?

Economists had expected Germany to grow by 0.8% in the third quarter, and France's growth was only half what had been predicted.

Germany's Desatis statistics office also revised upwards its estimate for growth in the second quarter, to 0.4% from 0.3%.

Though the data on Friday was weaker than expected, few analysts had even predicted at the start of the year Germany and France would start to recover so soon.

"The German economy has emerged from the deep recession earlier and faster than many had thought," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told Europe 1 radio that while the country's economy would have contracted during 2009 overall, it would enter next year "with elan".

France and Germany may have been less hard hit than the UK by the global economic slowdown because their financial sectors, which were at the heart of the crisis, account for a smaller proportion of their economies.

Stronger exports and consumer spending, as well as government stimulus packages, have contributed to the growth in the eurozone's largest economies.

The data released on Friday showed that Italy, Austria and Slovakia had also emerged from recession in the third quarter.

However, Spain's troubled economy contracted further in the quarter.
BBC News

European PC shipments see decline

Personal computer (PC) shipments in Western Europe between July and September fell slightly compared with a year earlier, a report has said.

But compared with the previous quarter, shipments increased by almost a third, reflecting "seasonal growth" patterns, computer research group Gartner said.

Acer held on to the top spot, with 28.3% market share, followed by Hewlett-Packard, with a 21.5% share.

PC shipments totalled 16.7 million during the three months.

Germany and France saw shipments increase, while the UK saw shipments decline, but at a slower rate.

BBC News

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The Things You Will Need:
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ATTENTION:
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If you haven’t got the $4 in your liberty-reserve account yet, you have to create or open your free liberty account at liberty-reserve. Open an account through this link: www.liberty reserve.com/?ref=U3370063. Get acquainted with this system, see how it works and choose the variant that suits you, and then, fund your liberty-reserve account with a minimum of $5. The remainder ($1) is to cover transfer charges.
Enquire from the person in line 1, whether he/she received $2 each from persons in lines 2 and 3 through the e- mail address attached to it.(Optional)
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LINE 1: U4516796 (adababy79@gmail.com) For enquiries.
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U6735333 (chykeman77@gmail.com)
U3370063 (asiegbutch@gmail.com)
U??????? (Insert your liberty-reserve account number here with your e- mail address the way it is in step 3)
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SOME USEFUL TIPS:

The first thing to do, is to highlight and SAVE this entire article in your ms word document or notepad on your computer, or just print it out, so you can come back to it later.
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Asiegbu, T. C
asiegbutch@gmail.com






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