Will Yar'Adua Abide By The Tribunal Ruling If He Lost?

Imagine if President Yar'Adua lost at the Election Tribunal! The president, through his special assistant on communications, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, at the State House yesterday declared that he would abide by the election tribunal ruling no matter what happens.

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President Umaru Yar'Adua has expressed his readiness to abide by the tribunal ruling on the petitions over the April presidential elections results which declared him winner.

Like the governors of Kogi, Kebbi and Adamawa States who are affected by the decisions of the tribunal, Yar'Adua said he would also comply with what the law decides on the issue.

The president declared this through his special assistant on communications, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, at the State House yesterday.

He was responding to insinuations that the president was afraid of possible removal from office, when he advised judges not to be guided by sentiments, but by facts.

According to the president, he was not angry with judges for doing their work, but was merely reminding them to "temper their powers with commensurate responsibility and not play to the gallery.

"We are not jittery. As an administration with a healthy record of respect for the rule of law, government would abide with the decision, as individuals, we do not always agree with the judgment of the courts, but we have to abide by it."

Nigeria Plans to Invest $75bn in Oil, Gas Sector

This Day (Lagos)

20 November 2007
Postedon 20 November 2007

Linda Eroke
Lagos

Nigeria is to invest $75 billion over the next five years in the oil and gas sector through joint venture partnership with oil companies and third party investment.

Minister of State for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia made this known in Saudi Arabia after the OPEC Ministerial Symposium, which looked at the current condition and future prospects of global oil and gas market.

The Minister, who addressed the world media shortly after the symposium said the new funding mechanism for exploration and production of oil and gas in Nigeria will not only eliminate the persistent deficit government encounter annually in funding cash calls but will also ensure that the targeted $15 billion annual investment in the sector in the next five years is adequately met in the mutually beneficial way between Nigeria and her partners. Ajumogobia reiterated President Yar'Adua's great concern over the rising crude oil prices which he said may not be good for Nigeria and indeed the whole world in the long run.

The minister, who stated that improving capacity of indigenous oil producing companies like NDDC and the effective utilisation of gas is the goal of Yar'Adua's administration, said Nigeria welcomes investment from all parts of the world.

Yar'Adua Requests Extradition of Two Militia Leaders in Angola

President Umaru Yar'Adua yesterday requested the Angolan President to extradite to Nigeria two Nigerians recently arrested in Angola for alleged gun running.

A State House statement issued in Riyadh, where the president is currently participating in the 3rd OPEC Summit, said Yar'Adua made the request at a meeting with the Angolan President, Eduardo dos Santos, in Riyadh.

The president commended his Angolan counterpart for his government's effort towards ridding the Gulf of Guinea region of criminal activities.

He called for continuous cooperation by all governments for greater security in the sub-region and Africa.

Yar'Adua also sought Angola's cooperation on the issue of an African Stand-by Force, stating that the concept was very necessary.

"I have already started consultations with some leaders of the continent on the need for such a force, to remove the need for external intervention forces and foreign military bases on the continent."

President Dos Santos thanked Yar'Adua for the meeting.

He said Angola had sufficient proof of alleged gun-running against the two Nigerians as well as their links with the Niger Delta militants.

Dos Santos, who acknowledged receiving a Nigerian delegation sent to Luanda to discuss the issue, said there were "technical legal details" involved in the extradition process which needed to be sorted out.


"We are trying to find a formula to resolve the issue which has nothing to do with politics but criminality; they are Nigerian citizens, so we cannot charge them in Angola.

"I assure you that we will ultimately release them to you for trial in Nigeria, but we must resolve the legal issues first", Dos Santos said.

The Nigerians, including a leader of a militant group in the Niger Delta, Henry Okar, were arrested in September in Angola for alleged gun running.
source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200711190475.html

Yar'Adua Charges Opec On Oil Challenges

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has charged the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to ensure that OPEC remains focused and steadfast in realising its noble goals and objectives.

Yar'Adua said this yesterday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the third OPEC Summit of Heads of State.While commending the efforts made by the Saudi Authorities to host the summit, the President recalled the relentless efforts of President Hufo Chavez of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in the run-up to the Second OPEC Summit in Caracas in 2000.

"Reflecting on those great efforts, and considering them alongside the indefatigable manner in which His Majesty King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz Al-Saud and the Saudi authorities have organised this third summit, rekindles our hope and confidence in the continued success of our organization, in the face of the rising global challenges", he said.

Continuing, he said the member countries "expect oil-consuming nations to recognise and reciprocate our longstanding efforts to ensure that the global oil market is adequately supplied with crude at all times, at reasonable prices.

In this respect, Your Excellencies, it is up to us to intensify our efforts to reach out and ensure that we are better understood in the global arena".

The President said in recent years, international concern about the environment has heightened, and climate change has been promoted to the centre-stage of global discourse.


"OPEC, as an Organisation, and our member countries, as individual sovereign states, have, to varying degrees, internalised the ideals of ensuring a clean and safe environment. We have, indeed, participated actively in all the negotiations of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and its offspring, the Kyoto Protocol.

"However, we must never lose sight of the fact that we, the developing countries of the world, are marginal contributors to the historic greenhouse gas concentrations that are responsible for climate change today. Even as we continue to support the policies and programmes that should lead to a reduction of greenhouse gases in the future, we must examine the adverse effects on the developing countries of both climate change itself and the response measures of the rich industrialised nations. I include here those developing countries, which rely on hydrocarbon revenues for the wellbeing of their peoples."We, therefore, resist any form of global mechanism which, in a discriminatory manner, focuses on the search for alternatives to oil, to the detriment of oil-producing and oil-exporting nations. We must never lose sight of the fact that oil is a strategic natural resource of our member countries and that it has served mankind well, especially in the industrialised world, since the birth of modern petroleum industry a century and a half ago."We urge member states, in continued collaboration with other developing countries, under the umbrella of the G-77 plus China, to maintain a united front on the eve of the forthcoming UN climate change talks, which are taking place in an OPEC member country, at Bali, Indonesia. The negotiations for the post-Kyoto Protocol will begin there in earnest.

The Framework Convention's core principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities' will continue to guide our negotiations with the industrialized countries."If we intend to optimize the benefits of our respective countries from our Membership of OPEC, it would be wise to engender closer cooperation in the economic, technical, educational, scientific and trade matters. The advantages, that can be gained from such policies and programmes, are too numerous to mention, and the Secretariat should, accordingly, be assigned to look into this matter more closely and report its findings to the Ministerial Committee", he said.Yar'Adua expressed hope that, at the end of the summit, the ideals of the organisation's founders, as well as the statements embodied in the solemn declarations, will be pursued with great vigour. "I also should like to see an OPEC which, once again, shows more unanimity and less ambiguity in promoting its noble ideals. And furthermore, I wish to see an OPEC which will continue to pursue its avowed commitment to ensuring a stable global oil market, being a partner in the technological advancement, while protecting the strategic interests of its Member Countries, the oil-consuming nations and investors alike.He said the successful hosting of the summit will be viewed by historians as a landmark event in the development of the organisation, especially since it is being held at a time of much change within the industry at large, when there is bigger need than ever to reassess our vision of the future.
Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/

Alhaji Sagir Muhammed Ringim Says Yar'Adua's Administration is...

Alhaji Sagir Muhammed Ringim was a former Military intelligence officer and now a traditional ruler. In this interview with Hassan A. Karofi he accuses former Head of state, General Gowon of not handling the power sector appropriately. He also spoke on other issues.

How would you assess the state of the nation since the assumption of office of President Yar'adua?

I will like to say that since the bold step taken by the president on petrol production which has now resulted in stable prices of oil and availability of the product, progress in other areas are yet to be quite appreciable to Nigerians. For example, the socio-economic sectors are yet to improve, abject poverty is becoming pervasive, situation of the country as a whole is discouraging. Sometimes you wonder when people will begin to feel the impact of government.

These problems are telling so much on everyone, however, this does not mean that we are not appreciative of the attempts to alleviate them, but government should speed up the process.

Another dangerous signal is the drought in the entire north and unless serious measures are taken to tackle the menace head on, the north will witness hunger. I want to believe that the President is being sabotaged to discredit him.

Who are the people against his progress?

Of course there are different people sabotaging Yar'adua, with Obasanjo as the arrow head. Obasanjo is infiltrating everybody to make sure that Yar'Adua does not succeed.

Now that he has sensed that someone would succeed where he failed, he is leading the sabotage against the Yar'adua government. From 1999 to 2007, Nigeria had about 16.5 Trillion naira and if you look round, there is no single project that you can say has been completed for the benefit of the citizens.

The President recently expressed concern over the judiciary verdicts in respect of the April elections. What is your opinion on this?

He should not have said that because it could be miss-interpreted, but I am sure he meant well.

Do you think Yar'adua has failed to fulfill his promise of emergency declaration in the power sector, since the problem still persists?

I think he made the pronouncement before he was sworn in, but now that he is on the saddle, I am sure he has realized the enormity of the problem in that sector and how difficult it is to tackle. I think he gave management up to December to come up with concrete decisions or face the state of emergency.

But honestly, General Gowon must share the blame for under-development of this country especially in the area of electricity. If in 1990 we had gone for 20,000 megawatts rather than 3,000 megawatts, by now our problem would not have been this bad.

I will like to recall what a former minister of power said on the issue. He said for Nigeria to be self sufficient in energy, it will take more than 40 yrs and even at that, we have to spend 6bn dollars annually.

I think he should behave like a truly commander-in-chief in a war situation where when your enemy outnumber you numerically, you should approach the war phase by phase so that you can hit your target, because he lacks the propensity to carry simultaneous affront on these myriads of problems, so let him concentrate on energy as foundation of development, concurrent with security. If we can solve the problem of power and security, he would have made history.

But personally, I do not think declaring state of emergency is necessary, when Obasanjo was sworn-in he took power into his office, and his minister of power, Bola Ige promised to effect change but they failed. So I maintain that unless serious efforts are made to restore power to the nation, through concrete means and not emergencies, Yar'adua himself will fail in that respect.

If we had implemented the vision 2010 of Abacha, most of our problems could have been solved. Obasanjo was known to have caused a lot of set back in the system like in the case of vision 2010. Another example is the toll gate issue, when the former president just woke up and destroyed something done with appropriation, without realizing that these toll gates served as points for checking weapons, and armed robbers, and now it is to be re-introduced , what kind of country is this?.

It is generally believed that the presidential election tribunal may not favour Yar'Adua and that this may explain his seemingly slow attitude to governance. Do you agree with this?

I don't know, I am not a lawyer, but I pray he does not lose out, because he is doing a good job. At least he is not corrupt and does not unduly interfere in things that do not affect his office directly.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200711190402.html

Yar'Adua Reinstates Another Perm Sec

The Federal Government has once again reinstated one of the sacked permanent secretaries in the last days of President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration.

Alhaji Sheidu B. Ozigis who was Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication was said to have been recommended for disciplinary action by his then Minister, Mr. Frank Nweke jnr. He was amongst other permanent secretaries sacked in May 2007 by the past administration over allegations, largely bordering on disagreements with their bosses.

Source told LEADERSHIP that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had in August ordered the reinstatement of former permanent secretary in the ministry of Labour, Dr. Timiebi Koripamo-Agary and her counterpart in charge of Railway Development at the ministry of Transportation, Mr. S. D. Matankari and over 2,000 workers sacked in the gale of the monetisation policy.
In a letter reinstating Alhaji Ozigis as a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Civil Service and signed by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Engr. Ebele O. Okeke, state that the approval of President Yar'Adua to reinstate him is with effect from May 25, 2007 and his services are construed to have run continuously as a civil servant and as a permanent secretary. The letter to this effect was dated November 13, 2007.
Alhaji Ozigis still has about seven years in the service before retirement age.

"The reinstatement of the permanent secretaries and the civil servants will in no small way restore the confidence of public servants in the country especially as it relates to job security", the statement added.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200711190502.html

President Yar'Adua by his actions continues to show Nigerians that OBJ's administration was a lawless one.
I wonder if OBJ will be able to walk on the street like a normal Nigerian.

I thought Atiku was Yar'Adua's Enemy

Former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Sunday said he remained a member of the Yar’Adua family in spite of what his detractors might think.

Abubakar spoke at a wedding reception held in honour of his son, Aminu, at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja.

The former vice-president said what was between him and the Yar’Adua family was strictly a family affair.

He said “Between me and my younger brother, Umaru, it is strictly a family affair interlopers should steer clear.

Abubakar said from his experience, all kinds of people milled around public officers in power but soon disappear when such people leave office. He expressed gratitude that his case was different.

He said “With what I have seen between yesterday and today shows that I have not lost my friends. My friends are still with me for this I remain grateful.”

The former Vice-President, who was flanked by his wife Titi, wife of late Maj. General Shehu Yar’Adua and other political associates, also said the family bond that existed between his family and the Yar’Adua’s was beyond what their enemies could understand.

He admonished the bride and the groom to respect one another as they go into the marriage institution. Abubakar singled out the wives of two former heads of State, Mrs. Maryam Babangida and Mrs. Maryam Abacha for honouring his invitation.

He said the gifts brought by Mrs. Babangida left him speechless. Those who attended the wedding, former governors including: Alhaji Abubakar Audu, Boni Haruna and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu among others.