BOKO HARAM KILLS 30 AT A BAR IN MAIDUGURI

It was another day of tragedy yesterday as members of the Boko Haram sect stormed a drinking joint in the Maiduguri metropolis killing no fewer than 30 people even as fears heightened in Bauchi over rumour of fresh attack.

A source who witnessed the act said that the members numbering about 10 had arrived at a popular drinking joint at Dala Kwamti around the Dala Alanderi area of the Borno State capital at about 6 pm in a convoy of two cars and started shooting sporadically.

Another source also claimed the men rode to the area on motorcycles from different direction, to beat the heavy security in the city.
“I don’t think they came in a convoy of cars as suggested. They might have ridden on motorcycles from different directions to beat the soldiers and police at a junction close to the area. They started firing shots from different directions into the joint and there were many people there at that time because it was not dark yet,” a resident of the area told Daily Sun on telephone.

It was also gathered that the Vice Chairman of Ngala Local Government, Alhaji Baba Kamfut and two others were shot and killed on Saturday night. Details of the killing of Kamfut were sketchy as at Press time, but sources said he was killed in his residence within the metropolis.
Unconfirmed report claimed the second victim was killed on Sunday while sympathisers were at the deceased local government boss house to condole with his family. Gunmen were said to have stormed the place again and shot two; one of whom died on Sunday, the source claimed.

Efforts to get official confirmation from the police as at Press time yielded no results. The Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Abdullahi Lawal, could not be reached as his mobile line was unavailable.
Meanwhile, palpable fears yesterday gripped the residents of Bauchi metropolis over a rumour of fresh attack by Boko Haram. The fears were heightened as unconfirmed reports claimed yesterday that the group plans to attack parts of the Bauchi State capital.

Residents in Yelwa told Daily Sun that the Rafin Zurfi was one of the places slated for attack.
A resident, who opted for anonymity, said as a result of the news, the men in the area formed themselves into groups patrolling at night in order not to be taken unaware. Daily Sun learnt that the insecurity was believed to have been heightened by rumours that there had been a bomb explosion at Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area.

It turned out that there was no bomb explosion in the volatile Tafawa Balewa council headquatres, but a fire, which gutted the treasury department.“Bauchi is one of the states where Boko Haram had a running battle with the law enforcement agencies.“Such onslaught had led to the killing of many of the Boko Haram members and policemen. For instance, on July 26, 2099, the group had an all-night attack on Dutse Tanshi police station. Several members of the sect and two policemen were killed.

“On September 7, 2010, the group stormed Federal Prison in Bauchi and freed about 700 of their detained members facing trial. Innocent people had also been killed when the group carried out a spate of bomb attacks at Mammy Market in the 33 Artillery Brigade headquatres, Bauchi.“The group has also threatened more attacks and Bauchi is one of the states the Boko Haram wants Sharia law to be implemented as conditions for peace.”

Many people were considering the option of leaving the state en masse as a result of the insecurity if the situation does not improve. A week ago, a student of the Bauchi State-owned Polytechnic, Abba Abdullahi, was murdered on campus, prompting the students to protest against insecurity. However, the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Barua, said the police were investigating the murder and assured the public that it would ensure protection of lives and property of citizens.

Barau could, however, not be reached to react to the news of the plan to attack some places as at Press time.
“There is actually, a threat to security that is why we must all be vigilant and secure yourself and property. It is only God that can save us for now,” another resident who said he was among those patrolling all night in Yelwa said

PROPOSED SHARIA BANK BY CBN WILL FURTHER TIGHTEN AL QEADA GRIP ON NIGERAI

Christians in the South-east under the aegis of Christians Council of Nigeria (CCN) have raised the alarm that the proposed Islamic bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has some Al Qaeda connections and Sharia rules guiding it.

The Christian group, led by its Chairman and Anglican Bishop of Enugu, Most Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma; Vice Chairman, Rev. (Dr.) Totty Onoh; Secretary, Very Rev. Ekpe; Methodist Archbishop, Most Rev. Samuel Uche; Rev. James Igwilo; Women Leader, Mrs Ego Kalu; Rev. Canon Jonathan Agbo and Rev. J. N. Ajuzie disclosed this at a press conference yesterday in Enugu and, therefore, called on President Goodluck Jonathan to stop the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on the bid.

The clerics reminded Jonathan that it would be dangerous to allow a religious bank in a secular state such as Nigeria, saying that; “Nigeria will be sitting on a keg of gun powder because this Islamic banking will be used to fuel terrorism.”

Explaining further, the group said: “It is going to be a very serious way of equipping and financing people who will destabilize this country because they don’t want this leadership. This is why we are saying it must not come.”
They suggested that the government should instead float a non-interest bank for every body in the country, but not one belonging to a particular religion.

“We feel as a church that this Islamic bank should not be encouraged and Sanusi should stop being fanatical about it. This bank is having a religious connotation and inasmuch as we support non-interest banking, it should not have a religious attachment; so, they should understand the Christians.
“If it is going to have religious attachment like Islamic bank, then we will demand for Christian bank, African traditional bank and that will bring division and trouble for Nigeria. So, if Sanusi and the other people in Islam have the interest and unity of this country they should decide right now to mellow down and forget about this Islamic banking, unless there is an ulterior motive behind it for which should be a condition for this country to be a member of the Organisation of Islamic Council.
“We said we cannot belong to this council and Nigeria is a secular nation and it can never be smuggled into the Organisation of Islamic Council.
“Again, if Sanusi cannot think of the unity of this nation, he should resign and leave this country alone because this is part of the problems they want to cause to make the country ungovernable for the incumbent president who is a Christian.

“Again, the Act that established the Central Bank does not allow a religious bank to operate unless Sanusi wants to let us know that he can do and undo things. The president should call him to order and caution him, the president cannot afford to be docile on this issue,” the group warned.
They argued that if the Federal Government had in the past refused to register some higher institutions because they bore Christian names why is it now allowing a bank with a religious attachment.

“If the Federal Government refused religious names attached to universities why should it now allow it for a bank, this is selective negligence. We feel unhappy about it; they refused Christian names for our institutions during NUC registration. So, why are you now giving religious name to a bank? This is a plan to Islamize the country,” they believed.

They also condemned attacks by the Boko Haram, saying that innocent citizens have lost their lives even when they were not involved in politics.
They accused northern leaders who lost in the last general elections of using Boko Haram to destabilize the country in disguise.
“They should know that this nation does not solely belong to them, this nation belongs to all of us, an election has been conducted, free and fair as judged by people outside this country and we are satisfied; so, they should give Jonathan the chance to govern as the Lord leads him and allow peace to reign,” the clerics said.

They also dismissed the amnesty sought for the Boko Haram sect, saying that their agitation was not similar to those of the Niger Delta militants.
“Theirs cannot be the same as that of the Niger Delta militants because the militants had a reason because of the oil resource they said was not equally shared. So, if they have any problem in the North for which the Boko Haram is protesting, let them come out in a decent way and let there be dialogue with the Federal Government for them to settle than using this violent way of killing innocent souls,” they said.

NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS INSISTS ON STRIKE

NLC President Omar

-Govt fails to persuade NLC, TUC on action

The stage seems set for another nationwide strike as the Federal Government – Labour parley yesterday failed to stave off the planned three-day warning strike.
The meeting ended in a stalemate last night. Unless today’s meeting between Labour leaders and governors turns the tide, the economy will be paralysed for three days beginning from tomorrow.
The government promised to: 
•pay the N18,000 minimum wage to workers on grade levels 01 to 06 immediately;
•pay workers on levels 07-17 after the passage of a supplementary budget; and
•pay the new wage to only core civil servants
But Labour rejected the proposals.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Anyim Pius Anyim chaired the meeting in his office at Shehu Shagari House, Abuja.
Minister of Labour and Productivity Emeka Wogu; chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Abdulwahed Omar; Trade Union Congress (TUC) President General Peter Esele, Director General, Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu and others attended the meeting.
Wogu told the workers’ representatives that the government shifted its ground by accepting to pay across board, but the immediate challenge is that because the new wage was misinterpreted, the government only included grade levels one to six in this year’s budget. He urged labour to be patient for it to be included in next year’s budget.
“A lot has changed. We have agreed with your position to review the table. The issue now is the funding. We have also agreed to pay across board,” he told the union chiefs.
NLC Deputy President Promise Adewusi said the government was adopting a divide-and-rule approach by offering to pay some workers now and others later.
He said the NLC may boycott today’s meeting with the governors.
According to him, the Labour leadership had discovered that the government wanted to engage Labour leaders in Abuja to prevent them from mobilising workers for the warning strike.
His words: “If there is going to be a strike on Wednesday, all workers in public and private sectors will be involved. First, I have come to know that nothing is impossible. Almost N100billion for INEC. It will not be impossible for a few billions for Nigerian workers. If there is an emergency, government rises to it. Let it rise to this. What I am hearing and seeing is not giving me the confidence that the strike will not hold on Wednesday. Labour expected an agreement with government; if that will be done, we will be very happy to leave this place.”
To Anyim, there is no problem as the Federal Government has agreed to all that the workers demand. He said because the labour leaders should agree with the government’s plan to pay level seven to 17 next year.
“We have agreed to what you said; you should agree to ours,” he told the union chiefs.
Obviously to show a good example as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Amaechi yesterday ordered the payment of the minimum wage.
Amaechi gave the directive at the Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre, Port Harcourt, while opening the state’s Civil Service Week/Awards’ Day.
He pleaded with other governors to pay the wage to avert a strike.
Amaechi, who was represented by his deputy Tele Ikuru, said his administration would deliver on its mandate of ensuring that workers get the best.
The Abia State chapter of the NLC said there was no going back on the strike.
Its Chairman, Comrade Sylvanus Eyeh, accused government of “making empty promises with the minimum wage”, and said workers were running out of patience.
Eyeh said: “They have been telling us they will pay but till when? We are demanding that the minimum wage will take effect from the 1st of April, 2011 taking into consideration that the President assented to it in March. We have waited for so long and workers are becoming impatient, knowing full well the cost of living in Abia State today.
“Even traders have skyrocketed their prices, yet the money we have not seen. We are calling on Abia State government to implement this minimum wage urgently without which we will be left with no alternative than to obey our principal, the Labour house in Abuja, which has directed all workers to down tools with effect from Wednesday.”
In Ondo State, workers yesterday said the on-going strike would continue till the state government honours the agreement on payment of salary relativity to workers.
The agreement was signed between the state government and the Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) on July 1 by the ruling Labour Party (LP) administration.
The Labour unions, in a communiqué at the end of its emergency meeting in Akure, condemned alleged antics of the government since May 1, 2009.
“We regret that a government enthroned by workers on the platform of LP is 100 per cent anti-labour, thereby negating the principles, philosophy and ideologies underscoring the formation of LP.
“Governor Olusegun Mimiko should tell the world whether the minimum wage was not in existence on June 20, 2011 when the state government entered into an agreement with labour on the implementation of salary relativity before minimum wage,” the statement said.
At a stakeholder’s forum at the weekend, Mimiko called on well meaning indigenes to the State to prevail on the workers to reciprocate his administration’s commitment to their welfare by calling off the strike.
The strike entered its fourth day, paralysing all ministries, departments and agencies as well as local government.
Members of the State Executive of the union, which comprise workers in the public sector, declared the strike in Ibadan yesterday after their meeting.
The meeting was presided over by the council’s chairman, Mr. Nurudeen Arowolo.
While justifying the industrial action, the workers alleged that the state government reneged on agreements reached with them on the new minimum wage on four occasions.
They explained that the strike became necessary as the government’s failure to keep an agreement could no longer be tolerated.
The strike is expected to paralyse activities at all public premises.
Chairman Bashiru Olanrewaju said the strike planned for tomorrow stands.
Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda said some states cannot afford the N18,000 wage but such states are ready to sit down with the NLC, open their books and agree on what is payable.

He said what the governors agreed last Saturday was that the implementation of the new wage is “doable, when able”.
He asked the NLC not to embark on blind agitation for N18, 000 wage in all the 36 states.
He said: “Well, we have all agreed that it (the N18, 000 wage) is something doable, when able. As far as I am concerned, N18, 000 is even too small for the average Nigerian worker. If we can even add more, we should do that.
“Labour knows the sources of funds of states and allocation of funds. They know how much we get and what we spend with many competing needs.
“There are states, like Lagos and Rivers, whose Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) runs into billions of Naira. If I were the governor of those states, I will certainly pay N50, 000 or N80, 000. There is nothing as good as investing in human resources.
“I also believe that there are states that can pay less than N18, 000. There are some states, from what I gathered from some of our colleagues, that the revenue that they are getting is not enough to pay the staff of the local governments, let alone that of civil servants.
“We know the truth, we know the facts and we run away from the facts. We have an army of unemployed graduates in millions. It is scary, having university graduates without jobs. And we are all running away from the facts. If I don’t have money to pay, do I print money to pay?
“All these labour leaders, are they not human beings? Why do they not fight for deregulation when they know that they are also going to be beneficiaries of the new minimum wage? If we are not careful with this country, it will collapse.
“There is no where in the world you borrow to finance recurrent expenditure (salaries and wages). If you are doing that, you will fail. When are we going to start telling ourselves the truth?
“The NLC leaders should not close their eyes because they are Nigerians. If this country fails, they have also failed. Every state should look at its own peculiarities and what it can pay.
“They should sit down with every state and look at their books. We would sit down with them, do our computation and see whether we will be able to pay the N18,000.
“For every kobo that comes into government, every citizen of that state is entitled to benefit from it. Do you want me to stop that? I can stop so many things to pay N18,000. Do you want me to cut the workforce? When will Nigerians start thinking Nigeria? I am worried when they talk about pedestrian issues.
On withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products, Yuguda said it is long overdue.
“Deregulation should have been done so many years ago. It is a necessity; it is sine qua non for the development of Nigeria.
“Nigerians should allow Mr. President to take that decision. If N600billion or N700billion is going into few hands in the name of subsidy, is that proper?
“You can count those benefiting from subsidy; they are few who are buying yacht and mansions in different parts of the world at the expense of all Nigerians. Those benefiting from the subsidy are oil marketers and those in the petroleum industry. It is a cartel.
“I want to make it clear that it (deregulation) is a war that every Nigerian must fight. If you remove subsidy and pump N600billion or N700billion monthly into the state treasuries every month, all these criminalities and infrastructural decay will end.”

TINUBU HITS PDP OVER BOKO HARAM

•It’s failure of governance, says ACN leader at Chatham House

BEFORE an elite audience of intellectuals and eminent personalities, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday offered President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan his candid advice on the Boko Haram violence. Find a durable solution to the dilemma or watch as your failure damages Nigeria, he told the President.
Tinubu said the Boko Haram threat has serious implication for national security. He described the emergence of the sect as indicative of failure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government.
The ACN chieftain was delivering a lecture entitled Democracy and the rebirth of opposition in Nigeria at Chatham House, London. He said without a secured environment, the touted transformative agenda of the Jonathan administration will crash.
In the about 100-man audience were technocrats, politicians, researchers and scholars.
Tinubu said though there was an improvement in the conduct of the 2011 elections, compared to the brazen electoral heist of 2003 and 2007 elections, there were strong indications that the 2011 election was systemically rigged.
He said the violence that erupted after the emergence of Jonathan could be linked to perceived inequities and obvious dwindling of quality of life.
His words: “The electoral violence comes from the same wellspring that has produced the urgent security threat called Boko Haram, which has launched a violent campaign against government authority. Boko Haram signposts the deficiency of the ruling party in governing the country.
“The nation’s stability and the President’s mettle are being tested.  Should he stumble on this, unrest may follow in other areas. Different groups may race to mimic Boko Haram’s apparent success in challenging government. This is a serious matter not to be under-estimated. On this issue, the President has my full sympathy and support in finding ways to quickly resolve Boko Haram. He must succeed, for his failure will damage Nigeria. However, he must do much better at communicating with the public, to build widespread support for a durable resolution to this dilemma. Without enduring peace, government will not be able to achieve the transformational agenda already promised Nigerians.”
Tinubu, while acknowledging that the opposition parties did not get their acts early enough to challenge the machinery of the PDP, noted that the greatest electoral fraud was carried out in Akwa Ibom State where the full force of government security apparatus was used to emasculate the governorship candidate of the ACN and his supporters.
Reiterating his call for the full implementation of the Justice Muhammed Uwais report on electoral reform, Tinubu said although the Prof. Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could have achieved some relative transparency, it should not be seen as a total transformation of the electoral process.
He noted that leaving the power of appointing the INEC chairman and the other commissioners to the President would expose the electoral body to manipulation and political influence.
“It must be stressed, however, that the change in the leadership of INEC is insufficient for the total transformation of the electoral process in Nigeria.
“First, the recalcitrant government failed to resolve the issue of the independence of the Electoral Commission.  Second, government refused to alter the selection process giving a president unilateral power to appoint the chairman and its commissioners. And third, government refused to provide the Electoral Commission an independent budget. This means the Commission remains susceptible to political influence because the National Assembly and President could control the Commission’s purse strings for as long as they deem appropriate,” he said.
ACN’s resurgence as the leading opposition party and government-in-waiting to a determination by its leaders to stand firm and fight the corrosive rape of democracy being practised by the PDP under the leadership of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his successors.
His words: “The PDP management of the economy in the last 12 years has been ineffective and here I am being charitable in my use of adjectives. They claim real GDP growth at a robust pace of nearly seven per cent per annum. How can that be? Inflation runs at over 12 per cent. Are they really claiming the economy is growing at nearly 20 per cent in nominal terms?
“High unemployment rates remain unchanged. Official statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics puts unemployment rate in Nigeria at 19.7 per cent, with about 10 million Nigerians unemployed as at March 2009. But we know the figures are much higher. The amount of people living below the poverty line has not decreased. The middle class – the backbone of any democracy - is an endangered specie.  Manufacturing and industrial firms are closing faster than others are opening. Electricity supply remains a serious challenge. In the last 10 years, over $15 billion has been spent to improve power generation. Yet, it remains at an abysmal level of less than 4,000 megawatts per day.  Cities, such as London and New York, enjoy four to five times more electricity than the entire Nigeria.

“Fuel supply is also a major challenge. We have a government unable to provide millions of Nigerians with refined petroleum products. While in the past, oil majors were able to meet demand, the reverse is the case now. Food prices are climbing so much so that hunger has entered households where it was once a stranger. After earning about 200 billion dollars from oil revenue in 10 years, based on NNPC documents, Nigeria is still a pauper nation. The PDP big guns must be the only ones benefitting from this illusory economic growth.”
Describing corruption as the bane of development in the country, Tinubu noted: “Corruption continues unabated and examples abound. There are allegations bordering on the extortion of illicit payments from operators in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil economy. The outright wastage of financial resources on illegal subsidies that never percolate to the people need to be boldly addressed by President Jonathan. Mis-management of scarce resources as exemplified in the delegation of the Petroleum Subsidy Funds (about $8billion per year) to the Ministry of Petroleum instead of the Ministry of Finance leaves the door wide open for corruption.
“Nigeria suffers one of the world’s worst rates of income inequality. The economy is not an open one and we do not yet practise sufficient economic justice to change the skewed regime. The PDP strategy is a corporatist/financier model whereby it seeks to place a greater and greater concentration of economic wealth and power in the hands of a select few. The party exploits the levers of government to lay claim to vast tracts of economic power to the exclusion of everyone else. This is dangerous. This policy began with President Obasanjo, who tried to establish new economic elite in his own image. He pushed the formation of the holding company called Transcorp.  The plan was to use Transcorp to lay claim to an obscene amount of the nation’s resources with the support of self-acclaimed technocrats in Obasanjo’s cabinet. Transcorp was to resemble one of the vast royal corporations of two or three centuries past. This entity began purchasing everything it could grab, from national telephone company to the best hotel in Abuja. Had Obasanjo and his platoon of merry men succeeded with extending to a third presidential term, this vision for the domination of the Nigerian economy would have been realised.”
Commending the late President Umaru Yar’Adua for dismantling the Transcorp scam, Tinubu cautioned Jonathan to be wary of some of Obasanjo’s men who are currently hanging around the corridors of power.
He lashed the PDP for its “skewed” fiscal federalism, “despite the Supreme Court verdicts”.
“Under the excess crude account and now its progeny, the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the federal government has improperly siphoned funds constitutionally meant for the states.  This represents a massive slush fund that the federal government can use as it wishes with little public knowledge or oversight. At best, the monies will be used to fund rentier practices that enrich government cronies but pauperise the larger economy. At worst, the money will be squandered,” he said.
“I cannot speak for other states, but I wager that the people of the ACN states would rather see their states’ proper share of these funds in the hands of their governors than in the custody of the unnamed bureaucrats servile to PDP chieftains. The ACN will do better than the PDP in managing the economy by pursuing a true fiscal federalism,” Tinubu said.
At the lecture, which was chaired by a member of the British Parliament, Chi Onwurah, who also moderated. In attendance were the Chairman of the ACN, Chief Bisi Akande, Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, Mr. Muiz Banire, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Hon. Mudasir Obasa, Sen. Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Mr. Dele Alake, Muti Bello, Chief Segun Osoba, Chief Pivs Akinyelure and Prof. Adebayo Williams.
After the event, the entourage proceeded to the Novotel Hotel, Waterloo, where Tinubu delivered a lecture on deepening democracy.
Members of the Oyo State branch of the Joint Negotiating Council will today start an indefinite strike.