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Presidency Not the Birthright of the North,
by Ikedife, Ex-Ohanaeze President
From DAVID ONWUCHEKWA, Nnewi
Is Nigeria a colony of Saudi Arabia? Is Nigeria a dependent country on Saudi Arabia? Is the king of Saudi Arabia the protector, child minder or chief nurse of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
These are the questions posed by the immediate past President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dr Dozie Ikedife on the health condition of President Yar'Adua.
I hope the presidency is not the birth-right of the North. But you know there are people who have vested interest in the President's illness, health, continuing as President or not continuing. And there are people who very much want him to continue. They must have had their own reasons. And if he is unable to continue, they must be afraid of something they might lose.
And I don't even envy Acting President Jonathan Goodluck even though he is a man with a lot of good luck because he has to watch his back. People may see him from different views and light of prism. People will have various interests, various aspirations, various ambitions and they will see him as either enhancing or stopping or even blocking such game. And they may be wishing him success or failure depending on what spectrum of community they are coming from.
I think the general mood of the country is that we don't want the military. I think that is the general mood unless I'm reading the mood wrongly.
I know that there are one or two people who would like the military to come back, but I know they are more or less joking, humoring themselves. You know the military should not come back. They should not come back and they need not come back because there is no reason they should come back.
We are nurturing a young democracy. And the unfortunate thing is that there are people who read the constitution upside-down. Some of them are in high places and they keep deceiving the country, otherwise what will happen when a President is absent or sick or dead, the sequence of handing over of power is very well stipulated in the constitution. That is why there are other four people, sitting, waiting. Number one is the Vice President, two the Senate President, three the Speaker of the House of Representatives and then the Chief Judge of the federation. They are all there in case any of them happens to fall sick.
I recall clearly in 1965-66 in the First Republic when the Rt Hon Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first President of this country was going on leave of absence for medical check up, he handed over to the Senate President.We didn't have a Vice president then. He handed over to the Senate President who then was Rt Hon Akweke Nwafor Orizu. That was why Dr Nwafor Orizu was the Acting President when the coup of January 1966 took place.
There was no rigmarole, no fancy show about I'm going on leave you take over, you look after the affairs of the State. The State cannot be left naked without a head. And it is being foolhardy to think otherwise. And we say that the country belongs to all Nigerians as at today by the constitution, which many of the operators want to protect or defend. Whether they are defending it and protecting it, defending what the constitution says either in the letter or spirit or not is another question.
But no special people are born to rule. And no special people should have monopoly of headship or leadership of this country. That is why we say that the presidency should be rotated so that there will be a sense of belonging. It will help to grow patriotism, love of the country. But if you know that you are permanently excluded, you can always say to your tent Oh Israel, what portion have we in the affairs?
So it is very necessary to help cement or strengthen the bridge that is holding this country together. That the presidency must be seen to go from one segment of the country to another, otherwise anybody you exclude, any segment you exclude, by design or by accident then you know you are planting seeds of dissension and trying to create anarchy.
Source: The Sun, 28th Feb 2010.
Nigeria Re-elected Chair of UN Committee
Nigeria has been re-elected chairman of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations of the United
Nations for 2010 and 2011 in New York.
The country's Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Joy Ogwu, unanimously secured the mandate at the opening of the 2010 substantive session of the Committee, also known as C-34.
In 2008, Ogwu became the first woman to be elected into the position, since 1965 when it was established to conduct a comprehensive review of all issues relating to peacekeeping.
The Committee, which reports to the General Assembly through the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonisation), is composed of 145 member-states.
Membership is drawn from mainly past or current contributors to peacekeeping operations, while 17 other member-states, the EU, Red Cross, Interpol and Sovereign Military Order of Malta, participate as observers.
In a post-election interview, Ogwu said a new leadership responsibility had been thrust on Nigeria to conduct the affairs of global peacekeeping operations in collaboration with the UN Secretariat and the Security Council.
Source: The Nation, 24th Feb 2010.
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How Nigeria Lost Billions of Naira to Discretionary Allocation of Oil Blocks
By Martin Ayankola
Last week's revelation by former Minister of Defence, General Theophilus Danjuma, about how he sold an oil block for $1bn and netted $500m was a confirmation of how people in position of power benefited immensely from the oil block allocations based on the whims of Nigeria's rulers especially under military regimes.
In that process, billions of naira that could have accrued to the government in signature bonuses reflecting the value of the oil blocks were waived for much lesser amounts.
Signature bonuses are paid when an investor bids for an oil block, wins it and signs a contractual agreement with government.
A former top official of the Ministry of Petroleum, who was involved in some of the deals, said. "You don't have to know anything about the business, all you need is just to have the ear of those in government and you can get an oil block."
According to him, the idea was to get the allocation, assess the hydrocarbon deposits the block contains and sell the block to the oil firms who are the only one in the position to exploit.
Under successive military governments, especially those of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, many connected Nigerians, including government ministers, top military officers, politicians and business figures got oil blocks under the discretionary allocation procedure.
It was gathered that at that time, there was no transparent bidding process and if there was any bidding at all, it was done under the table with Nigerians not told the signature bonus paid and the criteria used to select the block winners.
According to a retired Senior Official familiar with a few of the deals, "Some of them were lucky to strike oil in their fields while some were not that lucky."
"What happens is that when you get the block, you will get some seismic data from the Department of Petroleum Resources. You may also need to do more studies. There are some companies abroad that can still sell you some data on Nigerian blocks. So, after that, if the block is proven to have oil reserves after data interpretation, you may sell your interest to some foreign companies and pocket millions of dollars.
"Those who got such allocations were not always lucky. Some got fields that did not have oil then or that were full of gas and not oil and they had to abandon the fields after spending a lot of money."
However, some of those who got oil blocks through discretionary awards did strike it big. For instance, Danjuma's South Atlantic Petroleum Limited got Oil Prospecting Licence 246 located in the deepwater from the Abacha government
Today, the field had started producing crude oil and SAPETRO had sold most of its interest to Total.
In February 2005, the block was converted to Oil Mining Lease 130 and thereafter the Federal Government took back part of it through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. In June 2006, SAPETRO divested part of its contractor rights and obligations to China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
Also, Malabu Oil and Gas, a company linked with former Petroleum Minister, Chief Dan Etete, got a block, OPL 245 in April, 1998, still under the Abacha government. The block was also quite juicy and a signature bonus of $20m was supposed to be paid but the company could only pay $2m and then entered into agreement with Shell Ultra Deep in which Shell then agreed to pay $165m for 40 per cent stake in the block and also pay $18m as the remaining balance of the signature bonus.
Although the agreement did not hold eventually, had it worked, Malabu would have pocketed over $140m in profit from an investment of just a bit over $2m while still holding 60 per cent of the stake.
With the coming of Obasanjo, however, the Federal Government introduced the open bidding arrangement, which was generally applauded as though not perfect but a transparent way of auctioning the oil blocks rather than the discretionary allocation method.
At present, to own an oil block, companies have to undergo a bidding process in which the block goes to the highest bidder. However, under the Right of First Refusal arrangement, some blocks are offered to investors willing to invest in downstream projects, power projects or infrastructural projects.
A senior DPR official admitted that the nation could have made much more money if the blocks awarded through discretionary allocation had been awarded through the open bidding process. For instance, many analysts believed that OPL 246 could have been auctioned for about $200m, given the hydrocarbon reserves in the field. In the 2005 bid round, Indian company, ONGC Videsh, had offered $310m for OPL 323, a deepwater field, which may not be as big as OPL246.
The Federal Government, through the Department of Petroleum Resources had introduced the open competitive bidding process in 2000 and about $222m, was realised from the auctioning of the oil blocks then.
In the 2005 bid round, when the process was again applied, about $1bn was realised, while $504m and $502m were earned by the Federal Government during the 2006 and 2007 licensing rounds respectively.
Forty-five blocks were put on offer in the 2007 round. The winners, most of which applied as Nigerian companies, were consortiums that comprised local and foreign firms.
President of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Peter Esele, said the discretionary allocation system under the military gave room for government officials to award oil blocks to their friends and loss of revenue for the government.
"When Danjuma said he made $500m after selling his stake in Akpo field and did not know what to do with the money, it only showed the poor quality of leadership we have been having in the country. That $500m is enough to build a refinery. We have to do something about the tax regime so that people with big idle cash are taxed heavily, " he said.
Chairman, Lagos Zone, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Rev. Folorunso Oginni, said that the award of the block to Danjuma under discretionary allocation was not properly done adding that that was how the nation's assets were sold cheaply to people in government.
Source: Punch, 22nd Feb 2010.
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Nigerians Need God To Survive, Says Dada
By Niyi Olajide
The Senior Pastor of Life Changers Assembly, Ijaye Lagos, Pastor Gbolahan Dada has called on
Nigerians to cling to God in order to overcome the increasing difficulties associated with living in Nigeria.
Dada said only those who can access divine help can hope to live to the fullest in the country today where he noted even men of steel with connections in high places are finding life extremely unpleasant.
Speaking last week at the church headquarters ahead of the annual Ramah Conference organised by the church, Dada pointed out that the recent downturn in the fortunes of prominent Nigerians was an indication that things are far from well with the nation.
His words, survival in the country today is no longer for the fittest. Things have become so tough that even the fittest of the fittest are barely existing, let alone surviving. Most people with the right connections in the highest of places are falling into disgrace. If these people can find life tough, you can imagine what it is with the common man".
Life in Nigeria, and indeed the world, has become volatile. People drop dead at will; the moral foundations upon which we have depended are decaying; there are pressures of life coupled with the high rates of unemployment, insecurity and calamities. It is apparent what we are up against are beyond our powers," he added.
Dada, therefore, stressed that only divine help can take Nigeria out of the woods, calling on Nigerians to do all within their powers to secure the assistance of God.
We need help in view of all the forces against us; help not from man but from God. Only God can change our stories and help us lead extraordinary life despite what we are confronting," Dada further stated.
He explained that this is why the conference, which will run from February 24-28, at Grace Cathedral, Ijaye Lagos, has as its theme Extraordinary Life.
Our confidence is that when we get God, all of life's challenges are swallowed and that is what we are focusing on at the conference," he reiterated.
Speakers expected at the five-day event include Apostle Anslem Madubuko, Dr Emma Amotsuka, Bishop Victor Uzosike, Pastor Tony Olukorede as well as Pastors and Mrs. Gbolahan Dada (hosts).
Source: The Guardian, 21st Feb 2010.
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